expressed in part and but in part after a halting manner For hee professeth that on the Lords Day we are to abstaine from such workes as are an hinderance to Gods service but he delivers this onely of the publique service as if to spend an houre and an halfe in the morning and an houre and an halfe in the afternoone in Gods service were enough for the sanctifying of the day yet Gerardus the Lutherane observes that God commands the day to be sanctified not a part of the day And let the law of this nation or of any nation of the world be judge between us whether in case one man owe another a dayes service I say let the world judge whether in common equity this be to be interpreted of an houre and an halfe in the morning and an houre and an halfe in the evening or onely of a part of the day and not rather the whole day And what vile courses are these that men should carry themselves so basely in dispensing unto God the proportion of his service In the sixth and last place we have that wherunto all the former discourse is consecrated namely to make way for such profane sports and pastimes which here are glosed with the cleanely stiles of recreations to refresh the spirits and for the increase of mutuall love and neighbourhood amongst us as if he were ashamed to speake out that all this tends to the countenance of May-games and morricing and dancing about May-poles on the Lords Day D. Andrewes sometimes Bishop of Winchester Patterne of Catech. p. 244 245. on the Con. spared not to professe that vacare choreis to be at leisure on that day for dancing is the Sabbath of the golden calfe and hee allegeth Austin for it though hee cannot justifie his quotation Doctor Downeham Bishop of Derry calls such like courses profane sports and pastimes which more distract and more hinder our workes than honest labours and he censures also such a Sabbath calling it the Sabbath of the calfe Exod. 23.6.18.19 Bishop Babington on Exod. 16. puts a Christian soule upon this meditation Good Lord what doe I upon the Sabbath day This people of his might not gather Manna and may I safely gad to faires and markets to dancings and drinkings to wakes and wantons to Beare-baitings and Bulbaitings with such like wicked profanations of the Lords Day Are these workes for the Sabbath Is this to keepe the holy day Can I answer this to my God that gives mee six dayes for my selfe and takes but one to himselfe of which I rob him also No no assuredly I shall not be able to indure his wrath for these things one day and therefore I will leave them and regard his holy day hereafter better than I have done And in his exposition of the Commandements by way of question and answer p. 44. reproves expressely Summer-games on the Lords Day and in his Examen of conscience annexed to the fourth Commandement he speakes against going to Church-ales and Summer-games nay is it not apparent that by the very act of Parliament 1º Caroli that to goe out of a mans owne parish about any sports or pastimes on the Sabbath day is to profane the Sabbath For to prevent the profanation of the Sabbath is that statute made Now unlesse the sports themselves be profanations of the Sabbath it is as evident that to goe forth of a mans parish unto such sports is no profanation any more than to goe out of a mans parish walking or to conferre in pious manner with a friend or to fetch a Physitian or Surgeon if need be or to heare a Sermon And it is very strange that wee of the reformed Churches shall justifie such liberty on the Lords Day which Papists condemne on their holy dayes who usually complaine of dancing upon such dayes as Polydor Virgil upon Luke and Parisiensis de legibus cap. 4. And of old such courses have beene forbidden by the decrees of Leo and Anthemius Emperours It is condemned also in the synod of Toledo Can. 23. as Baldwin the Lutheran shewes who also writes devoutly against such courses on the Lords Day and gives this reason For if the labours of our calling are forbidden in the holy day how much more such recreations and p. 48. He shewed how the Sabbath was profaned by unchast dancings and any manner of wantonnesse what need I here to make mention of Austin who professeth and that against the Jewes that it is better to goe to plow then to dance and that it were better for their Women to spin Wooll then immodestly to dance as they did yet now a dayes such as oppose the same courses as Austin did are censured for Judaizing thus the World seemes to be turned upside downe Is it not high time Christ should come to set an end to it Dielericus the Lutherane complaines of the like profanations of the Sabbath too much in course amongst them in his Analysis of the Gospells for the Lords Day p. 559. and let every Christian conscience be judge whether to follow May-poles May-games and Morrice dancing be to sanctifie the Sabbath as God commands if any man shall say that the fourth Commandement concerned the Jewes and not us Christians hee must therewithall renounce the booke of Homilies For it professeth that this Commandement binds us to the observation of our Sabbath which is Sunday the words are these So if we will be the children of our Heavenly Father we must be carefull to keep the Christian Sabbath Day which is the Sunday not only for that it is Gods Commandement but also to declare our selves to be loving children in following the example of our gracious Lord and Father Then complaining how the Sabbath is profaned Some use all dayes alike The other sort worse For although they will not travaile nor labour on the Sunday yet they will not rest in holinesse as God commandeth but they rest in ungodlinesse and filthinesse prancing in their pride pranking and pricking poynting painting themselves to be gorgeous and gay They rest in excesse superfluity in gluttony and drunkennesse like Rats and Swin they rest in brawling and railing in quarrelling and fighting they rest in wantonnesse in toyish talking in filthy fleshlinesse and concludes after this manner so that it doth too evidently appeare that God is more dishonored and the Divell better served on Sunday then upon all the dayes of the weeke beside And that distinction which Calvin makes of the Jewish observation of the Sabbath and our Christian observation of a Sabbath is for ought I know generally receaved of all and the distinction is this that the Jewes observed their Sabbath so strictly in the point of rest for a mysterious signification but wee observe it in resting from other works so farre forth as they are Avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus avocations from holy studies and meditations now it is apparant that sports and pleasures are as strong avocations from
the Sabbath to abstaine from such a course whereby a mans strength would become more and more weakned and impaired Not that these things were commanded on the Sabbath day but permitted as is often signified by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is lawfull and for good reason “ Matth. 12.10.12 Mar 3.4 Luk. 6.9 For the Sabbath being ordained to promote a mans bene esse his well being and that in the best things it supposeth libertie to provide for his esse in case of necessitie lest otherwise he shall be found uncapable of those things that concerne his bene esse his well being For our nature wanting necessarie refreshment doth thereby many times become the more unfit for holy excerises and to performe that dutie which God requires and hath deserved at our hands How were Ionathans eyes enlightned upon the tasting of a little honey 1 Sam. 14.29 But this Translator desires as it seemes from the generalitie of mans good to seale up an opinion in the minds of his Readers that the Sabbath was made not onely for the service of God and for the promoting of a man in the knowledge and feare of God but for the furthering of his carnall pleasures also But never was it knowne that our Saviour justified any libertie to such courses on the Sabbath Neither were any such things as it seemes in course in the dayes of the Prophet Amos who reprehends them for saying Am. 8.5 When will the Sabbath be gone that they might returne to their worldly courses Rather they could wish their sun might stand still on that day as sometimes it did in the dayes of Ioshua if libertie were given to sports pastimes and pleasures on that day and it wvre wondrous strange that libertie should bee debarred them from kindling a fire to set forward the structure of the Sanctuarie Exod. 35 3. Luke 33.25 â—ast made to this very end that the Lord might dwell among them And from so precious a worke as the embalming of the body of Christ the Lord of the Sabbath and that at the very end of the day if at that time they were not restrained from any sensuall course of recreation according to the common fashion of the world Undoubtedly howsoever it stands now with us Christians in the dayes of our Saviour they that rested on their Sabbath from embalming the body of Christ Luk. 23.56 and that according to the appointment which is as much as to say according to the Law of God surely they by the same Law of God were much more restrained from worldly pleasures these standing far more in opposition to the sanctification of the Lords Sabbath then the embalming of the body of the Sonne of God who was Lord of the Sabbath And therefore this text is most unseasonably and impertinently alleaged by the Translator to serve his turn being farre more fit to crosse his purposes then any way to promote them So from the consideration of the title I come to the preface If the antiquitie of this controversie concerning the Sabbath were any thing materiall this Praefacer were foundered at the first For what if the Sabbath bee a part of the Law of Moses Was not the law of sanctifying the name of God the law forbidding images the law commanding them to have no other Gods but him that brought them out of the land of Aegypt the law commanding to honour parents to abstaine from murther adultery theft were not all these the Law of Moses Is not the law of sanctifying the Sabbath one of the tenne Commandements delivered by God from Mount Sinai as well as the other nine and was it not kept in the Arke as well as the rest Circumcision was no law of Moses and therefore albeit it be said Ioh. 7.22 That Moses gave unto them Circumcision yet forthwith it is added not because it is of Moses but of the Fathers so that Moses rather confirmed it then was the first giver of it So that the Law of Moses in this place is to bee understood of the ceremoniall law not of the morall law contained in the Decalogue and among these tenne Commandements that of the Sabbath is one and commended unto them in that state as none so much Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it and not onely before Moses but before Abraham and Noah also wee read Gen. 2. â— â— that the seventh day God rested from all the workes that hee had made and that therefore God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Of any Minister or Pastor in the Church of England that maintaines us Christians to be obliged to the observation and sanctification of the Jewish Sabbath or of any Sabbath that is a shadow of things to come the body whereof is of Christ I never heard or read Yet for some hundred yeares in the Primitive Church not the Lords day onely but the seventh day also was religiously observed not by Ebion and Cerinthus onely but by pious Christians also as Baronius writeth and Gomarus confesseth and Rivet also that we are bound in conscience under the Gospell to allow for Gods service a better proportion of time than the Jewes did under the law rather than a worse And further it is well knowne that besides the weekely Sabbath there was variety of observation of times amongst the Jewes and divers of them called Sabbaths also as some think not one whereof was mentioned in the Decalogue or pronounced by the Lord from Mount Sinai as the fourth Commandement was for the sanctifying of the weekly Sabbath So that this Praefacer every way sheweth miserable loosenesse in his discourse And if Ebion and Cerinthus and Apollinaris how wretched heretickes soever did still inforce the sanctification of the Jewish Sabbath whose wretchednesse yet consisted not so much in inforcing this as in inforcing all the ceremonies of Moses the Jewish Sabbath long after Corinthus continuing to be observed by many pious Christians as Baronius observeth others and Saint Paul doth oppose all such doctrine and practise in these passages of his here mentioned did not this Author know that upon these very passages of Saint Paul the Anabaptists and Socinians as vile heretickes as Ebion and Cerinthus and Apollinaris for their blood have gone so farre as not onely to overthrow the observation of the Jewish Sabbath but the sanctifying of the Lords day also The opinion of the law ceremoniall standing still in force which indeed was the opinion of the heretickes mentioned is I confesse a dangerous point and such as not onely seemed as this Praefacer minceth it out of what degree of wisdome or providence I know not to confirme the Jewes in their incredulitie but indeed justly might confirme them nor onely occasion but justly cause also others to make question of our Saviours comming in the flesh not so the observation of the seventh day to sanctifie it for ought this Author hath hitherto manifested or throughout this preface of his doth manifest and
to those shadowes Christians are admonished not to stick to the shadowing ceremony and upon the Epistle to the Corinthians in these words In 1. ad Cor. ca. 16. Electus autem potissimum dies Dominicus quod Resurrectio domini finem legis umbris attulit The Lords Day was chiefely chosen because the Lords Resurrection did set an end to the shadowes of the Law And in the words immediately preceding he expressely professeth that this change was made by the Apostles though not so soone in his opinion as Chrysostome thought who interprets that the first day of the weeke of the Lords Day And Cyrill long agoe upon consideration of our Saviours apparitions on that day and then againe the eighth day after makes bold to conclude Cyrill in Ioan. 1.12 that Jure igitur sanctae congregationes die octavo in Ecclesiis siunt By right therefore holy assemblies on the eighth day are made in the Churches 2 Observe by the way this authors spirit he accompts it more exorbitant to thinke that the observation of the Lords Day is prescribed unto us by Divine authority or the religious observation of one day in seven then to maintaine that none at all is to be set apart to religious worship by Divine authority And to this purpose he premiseth a generall rule that commonly the excesse is more exorbitant then the defect yet I never heard that prodigality was censured as worse then covetousnesse in opposition to liberality or rashnesse accompted worse then cowardlinesse in opposition to fortitude or superstition worse then prophanenesse in opposition to true Religion As for the sanctity of the day in Calvins phrase which this Author calls Sanctity affixed to the day shall I say this Prefacer understands it not it is incredible more likely he is to pervert Calvins plaine meaning not out of excesse in the way of superstition but out of a lesse exorbitant defect For the sanctity of the day in Calvins language is when Religione quadam feriando mysteria olim commendata recolore se somniabant by resting in a religious mannor they thought as it were dreaming that they observed certaine mysteries of old recommended unto them As appeares in his sect 33. Of the 8. Chap. of his second booke of institutions and such indeed was the sanctity of the day in the Jewish observation thereof This religion this holinesse Calvin will have to be at an end and that the Apostle Gal. 1. and Coloss 2. disputed against them who would have that holinesse that religion to continue still not against them who will have one day in the weeke set apart thereon to rest from manuall workes as they are avocations from holy studies and meditations And in the former case he doth not say as this author in a mincing manner feynes him to say to wit that So the change seemed to be only of the day but in plaine termes that this were no other then to change the day and that in contumely of the Iewes siquidem manet nobis etiamnum par mysterii in diebus significatio quae apud Iudaeos locum habebat if so be there yet remaines with us a mysterious signification equally in the daies such as had place amongst the Iewes Now this caution nothing concernes any of our protestant Divines who mainteine the observation of one day in seven as necessary in resting from manuall workes onely as they are impediments to the service of God Nay that one day in seven was observed by the Jewes for any mysterious signification conteyned therein or by the Patriarchs either or by Adam himselfe in whose dayes even from the first the seventh day was sanctified that is set apart for the service of God in the opinion of Calvin This is to bee understood of one day in seven indefinitly considered For as for the rest of the seventh precisely that is acknowledged to have beene mysterious Sect. 32. to this day I never heard or read This latter clause in Calvin which containes the condition whereupon this censure of his passeth upon those that so stand for the observation of one day in seven this Prefacerslily concealeth though Calvins censure be not passed absolutely but merely upon this condition Thus indeed to stand for the necessary observation of one day in seven namely as conteyning some mysterious signification were to exceede the Iewes in a grosse and carnall superstition of a Sabbatisme As touching the observation of some time set a part for Gods holy worship and service Calvin professeth that the same necessity lieth upon us Christians for reliefe whereof the Lord appointed the Sabbath to the Iewes and that it pleased our most provident and tender Father to provide for our necessity no lesse then for the necessity of the Iewes Now it is apparent that God commanded the Jewes to set one day in seven apart for the service of God and doth it not manifestly follow herehence that the Lord would have us also set apart one day of the weeke for his service And Calvin concludes that Section thus Why then doe we not obey that reason which we see to be imposed upon us by the will of God And therefore Wallaeus saith that Calvin delivered not these words whereupon this Prefacer grateth so much against his own Colleagues or fellowes in the reformation with whom he never contended in this argument but against certaine Papists schoolemen who thought they had provided sufficiently for themselves for Christian liberty and for the edification of the Church by teaching that the taxation of the seventh day as ceremoniall was abolished yet that one day in seven and by name the Lords Day was to be observed after such a manner and to such an end as the Jewes observed their Sabbath by which Doctrine way was opened to superstition in this dayes observation His words are plainely directed against such when he saith Thus vanish the toyes of false Prophets who possessed the people in former times with a Iewish opinion And againe But that is no other thing then in contempt of the Jewes to change the day and in mind to retaine the same sanctity of the day if so be there remaines unto us to wit by their opinion an equall mysterious signification of dayes to that which had place among the Jewes Now saith Wallaeus This agrees not to be spoken of any of the reformed but of Sophisters and Papists who urge new mysteries and new significations and holinesses in their holy daies as it is well known Bellarmine lib. 3. cap. 10. of the veneration of Saints writes against our Divines that the feasts of Christians are kept not only in respect of order and policy but also by reason of a mystery and that holydays are truly more holy and sacred then other dayes and a certaine part of Divine worship This Prefacer is content to make use of Iohn Barclayes report concerning Calvin namely that he had a consultation once de transferenda solennitate dominicain feriam
over our heads we know not how soone for wee see examples before our eyes of sufferings in this kind and how soone our owne turne may come to suffer in the same kinde it is uncertaine unto us Therefore to returne to Iohn Barcley wee have heard that his father before his death commended him to the Patronage of King Iames who accordingly had him attending in his Court somewhile with intent to preferre him untill on a sodaine his minde was changed having receaved intelligence that this Gentleman playd false with him living in his Court but as an espie and intelligencer to discover what he could of his Majesties affayres unto Queene mother of France which mooved King Iames ever after and that most justly to abominate him Now such a one if he could not proove true and loyall unto his naturall Prince can it bee expected hee being of a popish spirit should carry himselfe truely and honestly towards Iohn Calvin But sure it is in this Prefacers judgement that Calvin tooke the Lords Day to be an Ecclesiasticall and humane constitution only appointed by our Ancestors to supply the place of the Iewish Sabbath and as our Doctor tells us alterable by the Church at this present time as first it was when from the Saturday they translated it unto the Sunday For proofe hereof this Prefacer alleageth nothing but that out of Calvin where he saith Veteres subrogarunt diem dominicum in locum Sabbati The Ancients subrogated the Lords Day in place of the Sabbath But he takes no notice of that which immediately followes in Calvin as a reason of the former thus For whereas in the Lords Resurrection is found the end and accomplishment of the true rest which the ancient Sabbath shaddowed by the very day which set an end to shadowes Christians are admonished not to stick unto the shadowing ceremonie Where observe First as touching the persons noted by Veteres the Ancients first and then by Christiani Christians Are not these the Apostles as much as any other and they in the first place as wee best knew what that was which did set an end to shadowes and accordingly to give notice of the pregnant signification of the Day of the Lords Resurrection and therefore 1 Cor. 16.2 Hee doth intirely referre this to the Apostles as whom he confesseth constrayned by the Iewish superstition to have abrogated the Sabbath and in the place thereof ordeyned the Lords Day Secondly observe that the accomplishment of that which was signified by the Jewish Sabbath he ascribes to the Resurrection And Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his speech delivered in the Starre Chamber in the case of Traske professeth that It hath ever beene the Churches doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the grave That Sabbath saith he was the last of them And that Christs Resurrection brought with it a new Creation and a new Creation requires a new Sabbath And hee alleageth Austin Ep. 119. saying The Lords Day was declared to Christians by Christ his Resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity But that at this time Calvin should thinke it alterable by the Church no colour of proofe is brought and most unreasonable it is for any to conceave the Sabbath to be as alterable now as in the Apostles dayes it was when from the Saturday they translated it unto the Sunday For that alteration depended upon a second Creation as both Bishop Andrewes observes and that out of Athanasius de Sabbato circumcisione And Bishop Lakes was of the same opinion as his discourse in Manuscript yet to be seene doth manifest So that unlesse this Prefacer can devise a third Creation and maintaine withall the rest on the Lords Day to bee as ceremoniall as the Jewes rest on the seventh Day was there is no colour why the Christian Sabbath on the Lords Day should bee as alterable now as the day of the Jewish Sabbath was As for the 3. conclusions which hee saith Calvin resolves upon the first whereof hee saith to be this that one day in seven is not the morall part of the fourth Commandement I say Calvin avoucheth no such thing and Wallaeus shewes that generally the friends of Calvin maintained the contrary between whom neverthelesse and Calvin it was never known that there was any contention herabouts And already I have shewed how unshamefastly this Prefacer abuseth Calvin in alledging one halfe of his sentence and leaving the other part quite out so making Calvin to deliver that absolutely which he affirmes onely conditionally The second resolution which he obtrudes upon Calvin is that the day was changed from the last day of the weeke to the first by the authority of the Church and not by any divine ordinance It is true Calvin sayth not that the day was changed by divine ordinance Comment in t ep ad cor cap. 16. neither doth he say that it was changed by the authority of the Church but in plaine termes professeth that the Apostles changed it in one place and that admonition was given for the change of it by the consideration of the Day of Christs Resurrection in another to wit Institut lib. 2. cap. 8. Sect. 36. Now let every sober conscience consider whether that day which was first ordained by authority Divine the apostles would alter by lesse authority then authority Divine especially considering that Christs redemption of the World is the restauration of the World which is as a new Creation and as the Lord rested the seventh day from the workes of Creation so the day of Christs Resurrection was the day of his rest from the worke of redemption so that still the day of the Lords rest is the day of our rest not indeed the day of the Lord our Creators rest that ceasing as being ceremoniall as before hath beene shewed out of Doctor Andrewes but the day of the Lord our Redeemers rest which brought with it a new Creation is now the day of our rest And who was nearer or dearer unto Calvin then Beza whose words upon Revel 1 10. are to this effect He calls that the Lords Day which Paul calls the first of the Sabbaths 1 Cor. 16.2 Acts 20.7 on which day it appeares that even then were made the more frequent assemblies by Christians like as the Iewes came together in their Synagogues on the Sabbath Day wherby it may appeare that the fourth precept of sanctifying the seventh day as touching the day of the Sabbath and legall rites was ceremoniall but as touching the worship of God is of the morall Law unalterable and perpetually to continue in this life And that day of the Sabbath continued in force from the creation of the World to the day of Christs Resurrection which being as it were another Creation of another spirituall World as the Prophets speake then for the Sabbath of the former world or seventh day was assumed the first day of this new World the holy Ghost
world yea and his collegue Thysius also yet no cause had they to oppose in this when the other professed it to be a laudable and good custome according to the patterne of the Primitive Church and can the Primitive Church exclude the Apostles and not rather include them And is it probable that the Primitive Church prescribed it to the Apostles and not rather the Apostles to the Church Tilenus calls it Ecclesiae consuetudinem not denying it to be instituted by the Apostles nay elsewhere hee affirmes this or rather that it was instituted by Christ himselfe So little cause had these professors to quarrell with this phrase of the Remonstrants having weightier matters in hand wherein to oppose them What if Bullenger call it Ecclesiae consuettudinem so doth Tilenus de praecept 4. Thes 29. yet Thes 24. he professed it to be not onely observed by the Apostles but that it may seeme also to be instituted by Christ himselfe Bullenger saith sponte receperunt to wit in opposition to an expresse Precept as appeares by that which immediately followeth Non legimus eam ullibi praeceptam we doe not reade it any where commanded Vrsine alleged in the next place clearely professeth in the very place quoted by Gomarus that God it is who hath abrogated the observation of the seventh day but he addes that he left it free to the Church to choose other daies which Church upon a probable cause chose the first day which was the day of Christs resurrection Now what Church was it but Apostolica Ecclesia as Paraeus upon Vrsinus Catechisme observes p. 665. Pro libertate sibi à Christo donatâ pro septima die elegit diem primum propter probabilem causam out of the liberty which Christ hath given them insteed of the seventh day chose the first day of the weeke by reason of a probable cause to wit because on that day Christ rose by whose resurrection Rom. 1.4 the spirituall and eternall rest is inchoated in us and p. 666. Apostoli ipsi mutarunt Sabbatum septimi diei The Apostles themselves changed the Sabbath of the seventh day By the way touch we a little upon this that First this was done in reference to Christs resurrection so Calvin acknowledgeth in reference whereunto this day had some prerogative above the rest to wit in the way of fitnesse for holy use because of the worke of God on that day Whence it is evidently concluded that the Apostles did not thinke it indifferent therefore though it were left to their liberty in as much as no Commandement was given to them thereabout for ought wee reade yet by the spirit of God they were directed to make choyse of this day and that in reference to such a worke on that day as the like on no other Not that the sanctifying of a rest on this day would make us more holy then the sanctifying of a rest on any other day but onely in reference to some speciall worke of God on that day upon which consideration the ancient Fathers doe generally insist and Bishop Andrewes and Bishop Lake after them doe joyntly rely and not Beza onely Secondly That both Vrsine and Paraeus call this a probable reason onely now give me leave to insist upon this and try whether I cannot shew that this reason is more then probable And that first à Posteriori For let us soberly consider how came it to passe that not onely the day whereon Christ rose but answerably hereunto the Day of the weeke to wit the first Day of the weeke was accompted by the Apostles and so commonly called the Lords Day and generally knowne to Christians by that name otherwise S. Iohn had not beene so well understood in his Revelation chap. 1. vers 10. Is it not apparent that Christs rising did ever after give the denomination of the Lords Day to the first day of the weeke Againe the day of Christs Passion upon the Crosse is not called the Lords day and why the day of the Resurrection rather surely because S. Paul saith that Christ was declared mightily to be the Sonne of God by the spirit of sanctification in his Resurrection from the dead Rom. 1.4 Hereby then was he manifested to be the Sonne of God the very Lord of Glory and is not this reason more then probable why it should bee called the Lords day Secondly consider that day of the moneth or that day of the yeare whereon the Lord rose wee no where finde that it was usually called the Lords Day but onely that day of the weeke not the day of the weeke wherein hee ascended into Heaven but the day of the weeke wherein hee rose Now the Jewes Sabbath was called the Lords Sabbath the Lords holy Day Es 58.13 If thou shalt turne away thy foote from my Sabbath from doing thy will on my holy Day Hath the Lord a Day under the Gospell but no Sabbath no holy Day what an unreasonable conceite were this that hee should have an holy Day one in every weeke under the Law and none under the Gospell Now if the Lord hath a day that is peculiarly called his under the Gospell and that day is in the Scripture styled the Lords Day I appeale to every Christian conscience whether the sanctifying of this day as holy to the Lord ought not by more then probable yea even by necessary reason come in place of the sanctifying of the seventh day as an holy rest to the Lord in the dayes of old Otherwise we should have two different dayes in the weeke the one called the Lords Day the other the Lords holy Day or no holy day at all though wee have the Lords Day Lastly consider the very definition of a thing probable which Aristotle makes to be such as seemes so in the judgement of most or in the judgement of most of the wisest or of some few provided they are wiser then the rest but the sanctifying of the first day of the weeke to the Lord that is the Lords Day to the Lord hath seemed fit not to some of the wisest onely in the Church of God but to all even to all the Apostles yea and Evangelists and Pastors and teachers in their dayes and to the whole Church for 1600. yeares since and shall wee call the reason moving them hereunto onely probable 2. yet all this is but a posteriori which yet for the evidence of it I presume most sufficient for the convicting of every sober Christian conscience of that truth to the demonstration whereof it tends I come to give a reason hereof à priori The first creation in the wisedome of God who proceeds not merely according unto probable reason drew after it a Sabbath day the seventh day where on God rested But if God vouchsafeth us a new creation in the same congruity may wee not justly expect a new Sabbath Now the Apostle tells us plainly that old things are passed away and that all things are become
new 2 Cor. 5.17 and this he brings in upon shewing what Christ hath deserved at our hands in as much as he died for us and rose againe vers 15. the end whereof was this that he might be Lord both of quicke and dead Rom. 14.9 and concludes that whosoever is in Christ is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 And how are we in Christ but by faith Gal. 2.20 And what is the object of this our faith let the same Apostle answer us If thou confesse with the mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved so that this faith in Christs resurrection is to us the beginning of a new creature And Christs resurrection Sedulius calls nasâ—â—ntis mundi primordium And Athanasius saith That as the Sabbath was the end of the first creation so the Lords Day is the beginning of the second creature And this is it that Bishop Andrewes and Bishop Lake doe worke upon for the celebration of the Lords Day as by Divine institution But I am not a little sensible of some appearance of incongruity rising hereupon Almighty God did not thinke it fit that the first day of creation should be our Sabbath but the seventh from the creation as whereon himselfe rested but in the second creation the first day is made our Sabbath To this I answer two things the first is this if man should not rest unto God till the second creation is finished hee should not rest at all in this world And the sixe dayes being the dayes of Gods worke the seventh was the first of mans worke which God would have to be an holy worke most convenient whereby to take livery and seasin of the world For albeit God commanded Adam to dresse the garden and keepe it when he placed him in it yet it is nothing probable it had need of dressing so soone as it was made and no mention of rest commanded at the first onely it is said that because God rested that day from all his works therefore he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it This I deliver to save the expression of Athanasius 2. But in my judgement there is an exact congruity betweene rest and rest in each creation For as God rested the seventh day from the worke of creation so Christ rested the first day of the weeke from his worke of Redemption which was the meritorious cause of the new creation For Christs dying and continuing under the power of death for a certaine time I may justly reckon as one worke of Redemption in which time hee suffered ignominy not onely from the reproach of the world but from the weaknesse of his servants faith Acts 24. whose voyce was wee thought it had been he who should have redeemed Israel As for Zanchy in the place cited by Gomarus hee confesseth hunc diem ex traditione Apostolica esse optimo jure ab Ecclesia retentum That the Lords Day is to be observed by Apostolicall tradition and by the best right retained by the Church this the Prefacer in his wisedome omitted indeed hee saith we no where reade that the Apostles commanded it but left it free but take with you the rest ita liberum ut omnino ipse dies sanctificandus sit nisi charitas aliud postulat In such a manner free that omninò undoubtedly the day it selfe ought to be sanctified unlesse charity require otherwise I conceive his meaning is and the meaning of all that use this language that wee are to keepe it by no other obligation not of speciall commandement than the reason of the day doth minister unto us it being the day that the Lord hath made joyfull to Gods Church by the resurrection of Christ from the dead and in this sense they say it doth not bind mens consciences to wit as a Precept doth whether we know the equity of it or no. And it were very strange that Christians in keeping any holy day in the weeke should not make choice of the Lords Day for that without any expresse commandement Aretius saith no more than that Christians changed the Sabbath unto the Lords Day and can any man doubt but that the Apostles were meant hereby For which is most likely that the practice and judgement of others was a leading cause to the Apostles or rather that the judgement and practise of the Apostles was a leading cause unto all others Simler hath no more but this that he calls it the custome of the Church so doth Tilenus yet he proposeth it as likely to have had its institution from Christ Paraeus in the very place cited by Gomarus ascribeth the change of the day to the Apostolicall Church and expressely saith that the Apostle commanded the Corinthians to meet together the first day of the weeke and make their collections I wonder the Prefacer omits Cuchlinus was it because that which others call consuetudinem Ecclesiae hee calls consuetudinem Apostolicam In the last place Bucer is named by the Prefacer but Gomarus is well content to omit what is delivered by him But to the contrary I will not forbeare to set downe what I find in his booke De Regno Christi lib. 1. cap. 11. For having formerly described what are the true workes of holy rests added upon the backe of it Eapropter For this cause the Lords Day was consecrated by the Apostles themselves to these kind of actions Which ordinance of theirs institutum he calls it the antient Churches observed most religiously Then he shews the cause why they changed the day 1. The first reason given is to testifie that Christians are not obliged to the Pedagogie of Moses law 2. The second is to celebrate the memory of Christs resurrection which was performed on the first day of the weeke So that not one of the Authors mentioned by him makes any thing for him And if the passages of the sixe mentioned by him and related by Gomarus did make any thing for him we have no lesse of the ancient Fathers to the contrary as namely Athanasius Cyril Eusebius Austin lately mentioned to whom adde Sedulius operis Paschalis lib. 5. cap. 21. The glory of the eternall King illustrating the first day of the weeke with the trophy of his resurrection primatum cum religione concessum diâ—rum censuit retinere cunctorum thought good it should have the primacy of all dayes granted unto it with religion that is with an holy celebration thereof Adde unto him Gregory mentioned in the first Section affirming that Antichrist affecting to imitate Christ shall command the Lords Day to be kept holy Adde to these the universall consent of Christendome in antient times for when the question was proposed unto them as usually it was thus Dominicum servasti Hast thou kept the Sabbath their answer was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum For Brentius alleged by him to little purpose let mee represent what Gerard the Lutherane writes of our Christian
Sabbath in his common places tom 3. pag. 146. Est Sabbatum Christianum quo juxta Apostolorum constitutionem dies hebdomadae primus publicis ecclesiae congressibus destinatus est Our Christian Sabbath is that whereby the first day of the weeke is destinated to the publique assemblies of the Church by the constitution of the Apostles See how plainly hee referres the celebration of this day to Apostolicall constitution and pag. 148. he sheweth the analogie between the Jewes Sabbath and our Christian Sabbath consisting in two or three particulars 1. As on the seventh day God rested from the six dayes worke of creation in remembrance of which benefit the Sabbath was instituted in the old Testament so in the first day of the weeke after Christ-by his death and passion had accomplished the mysterie of our Redemption he returned gloriously as a conqueror from the dead in remembrance of which benefit the first day of the weeke is celebrated in the new Testament 2. As in the old Testament the Sabbath was instituted that it might be a memoriall of their deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5.15 So in the new Testament the Lords Day is a memoriall of our spirituall deliverance out of the kingdome and captivity of Satan procured unto us by the resurrection of Christ a type whereof was that deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt 3. By Christs death and resurrection were abrogated Leviticall ceremonies and legall shadowes amongst which the Sabbath is reckoned Col. 2.17 Therfore the change of the Sabbath into the Lords Day is a publique testimony that Christians are freed from legall shadowes and that difference of dayes which in antient time was ordained Adde to him Melanchthon alleged by Walaeus pag. 265. affirming that the Apostles for this cause changed the day that in this particular they might give an example of the abrogation of the ceremoniall Lawes of Mosaicall policy As for our Popish Divines for which he referres us to Doctor Prideaux it is apparent that more of them are alleaged for the jus divinum of the celebration of the Lords Day then for the contrary one of them Silvester by name professeth expresly that his opinion was the common opinion which was for the Divine institution of it And Azorius the Jesuite as hee professeth it a thing most agreeable to reason that after six worke dayes one intire day should bee consecrated to Divine worship so withall saith that it is most agreeable to reason that the Lords Day should be that Day Adde unto these Sixtus Senensis Biblioth lib. 7. p. 603. Col. 1. but that which they object saith hee concerning the Lords Day not as yet instituted in the time of John is most false the consent of the whole Church disclaiming it which doth beleeve the solemnity of the Lords Day was appointed by the Appostles themselves in memory of the Lords Resurrection concerning the institution whereof by the Apostles Austin Ser. 25. de temp testifyeth in these words therefore the Apostles themselves Apostolicall men appointed that the Lords Day should for that reason bee religiously solemnized because on it our Redeemer rose from the dead In the last place come wee to our Divines Now Bucer I have already shewed to stand for us rather then for him 2. And Calvin expresly acknowledgeth that the Apostles did change the day 3. Beza upon Re. 1. v. 10. hath an excellent passage to the same purpose For hee considers Christs resurrection to bee as it were a second creation of a World spirituall and thereupon doubts not but that the spirit of God did suggest unto them the change of the seventh day into the Lords day as to bee consecrated to Divine Service 4. Iunius on Gen. 2. writes that the cause of the change of the day was the resurrection of Christ and the benefit of instauration of the Church in Christ The commemoration of which benefit succeeded to the commemoration of the Creation not by humane tradition but by the observation of Christ himselfe and his institution 5. Piscator on Exod. 20.10 It is to bee observed that the circumstance of the seventh day in celebrating the Sabbath is abolished by Christ as who for that day ordained the first day of the weeke which wee call the Lords Day and that in remembrance of the Lords Resurrection performed on that day And upon Luk. 14. v. 2. He makes this observation By occasion of this story it is fit to consider what was the religion of the Sabbath in the new Testament and what place it hath at this day among us Christians and how it is to be observed And first we must hold that the Sabbath is abrogated by Christs comming as touching the seventh or last day in the week and that in the place thereof is ordained the first day which we call the Lords Day because on that day the Lord rose from the dead and shewed himselfe alive to his Disciples and divers times speaking with them of the Kingdom of God aod so by his own example consecrating that day to Church assemblies and for the performance of the outward service of God The reason of the abrogation is because that ceremoniall rest observed in the Law was a type of that rest which the Lord made in his grave as is perceived by the words of Paul Col. 2.16.17 Now of the apparitions of the Lord S. John testifies Chap. 21. where he shewes how first he appeared to them gathered together on that very day whereon he rose And againe eight dayes after Now that in these dayes he spake unto them of the Kingdom of God Luke shewes Acts 1.3 Whence it was undoubtedly that the Apostles observed that day by the Lords ordinance to keep their Ecclesiasticall assemblies thereon as it appeares they did Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 And hence it was without doubt on the Lords day John was in the spirit and receaved the Revelation To the same purpose is that which Doctor Walaeus alleageth out of Piscators Aphoris 18. It may be doubted concerning the Lords Day whether it be appointed by God for his service in the New Testament My opinion hereof is this although we read no expresse Commandement concerning it yet that such an institution may be gathered from the example of Christ and his Disciples For on that day whereon the Lord rose from the dead therefore called the Lords-Day he shewed himselfe alive to his Disciples and spake to them of the Kingdom of God And Paul on that day in an assembly of the faithfull met together to celebrate the Lords Supper preached to them on that day Acts 20.7 and that the Christians at Corinth were wont to meet on that day for publique prayer appeares 1 Cor. 16.2 Now it cannot be doubted but Paul ordained that day amongst them as also the manner of celebrating the Lords Supper and that according to the Commandement of Christ Math. 28. the last Teach them to wit as many as receave the Gospell to
should bee so whether manifested by Christs particular charge unto them or by comparing Christs Resurrection with the Lords rest from the workes of Creation Otherwise in my judgement they had never called that day the Lords Day Fourthly he excepts against the argument drawne from Christs Resurrection denying that therehence it followes that that day was to bee consecrated to God But herein hee opposeth all the ancients neither doe I thinke hee can alleage any one that doth not hereon build the observation of the Lords Day which nuiversall concurrence doth manifestly argue to be more then probable Austin as Waleus alleadgeth him professeth not as his peculiar opinion but as he took it generally received without contradiction that Dies Dominicus Christianis resurrectione Domini declaratus est and that resuscitatio Domini consecravit nobis diem Dominicum And Athanasius plainly takes notice of the analogy it hath to the fourth Commandement and analogy Doctor Walaeus grants and I wonder hee takes no notice of it here by comparing the second Creation with the first Creation and so Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester professeth that the new Creation requires a new Sabbath especially seeing the old must bee abrogated as ceremoniall But the analogy I confesse may be differently shaped Athanasius shapes it thus that the Jewes Sabbath was the end of the first Creation and that the Lords Day is a beginning of the second Creature to wit as the day of Christs resurrection in reference whereunto the Apostle saith Old things are passed behold all things are become new And I conceive reason to justifie Athanasius in making the beginning of the new creature to be our Sabbath answerable to the end of the first creation to wit because the second creation hath no end in this world Againe Adam and Eve were made but the immediate day before the seventh and the seventh he was to spend in rejoycing in Gods works so Christs death was the worlds redemption and immediately after to wit with Christs rising it was as fit we should Sabbatize with God for joy of our Redemption Otherwise the analogie which Doctor Walaeus grants but doth not explicate may be conceived thus The seventh day of the weeke was the Lords rest from the worke of creation the first day of the weeke was the Lords rest from the work of redemption in the morning thereof rising from his grave and in respect of Christs resurrection on this day what colour hath any other day of the weeke comparable hereunto to make it fit to stand in competition with this Yes saith D. Walaeus the Thursday may and that in consideration of Christs ascension on that day yet Doctor Walaeus well knowes that that day of the week was never thereupon called the Lords Day either by the Apostles or by the Church as the day of our Saviors resurrection was Againe consider Christs resurrection and ascension are to be computed but as one compleate motion save that he was to stay some time by the way here on earth for the confirming of his Disciples faith and giving them commission for preaching the Gospel and order to wait at Jerusalem untill they were endued with power from on high to carry the glad tidings of salvation all the world over So Christs dying and continuing under the power of death is but one worke of Redemption He confesseth that Christs resurrection afforded an argument to the Church Apostolicall to prefer this day before all others very well even before the day of his ascention for religious assemblies as al the ancients testifie But it followeth not therefore that Christ by this his fact did institute the same day to the same end Now this is a very strange phrase by his fact on the day to institute the day to such an end T is well knowne facts doe not institute otherwise than as therefrom may be concluded that such a day is to be kept and in this sense he doth as good as confesse that Christ by his fact did institute for the Apostolicall Church did hereupon preferre this day as he confesseth all the ancients doe testifie And did they not inferre this there-hence also as most agreeable to the Will of God Doctor Walaeus proceedeth thus So God in the creation of the world rested the seventh day but unlesse God had proposed this rest of his as an example and confirmed it by precept never had the Church of the old Testament beene bound as from heaven to the weekly observation thereof To this I answer that the like may be said of the observation of one in seven yet seeing God did cōmand this proportion to the Jews without any new commandement we can inferre that surely God requires as good a proportion of us Christians In like manner seeing God commanded unto them the day of his rest from creation we without any the like commandement may better inferre that Christs resting day from the worke of Redemption ought to be our rest than they could that the seventh day ought to be their rest 2. Man could not possibly have knowne how many dayes God was creating the world so to know what day he rested that they might conforme unto him in their rest unlesse God had revealed it unto them but supposing God had revealed it and withall had called it his holy day and it were knowne unto them that one day in the weeke must be set apart as Gods holy Day in this case I appeal to every Christian conscience whether this were not sufficient to conclude that surely the day of the Lords rest being his holy Day ought to be the day of our rest and our holy day Now thus the case stands with us Christians we know what day our Saviour rose having finished the worke of mans Redemption we know the Jewes Sabbath is abrogated we know the proportion of one day in seven remaines still to be consecrated as an holy day to the Lord we know the Lord prescribed to the Jewes for their Sabbath his resting day from the creation which is called his holy day And in like manner we know that under the Gospel the first day of the weeke being the day of our Saviours resurrection is called by Saint Iohn the Lords Day as for Easter and Pentecost the case is nothing like those festivalls being not of single dayes but of whole weeks once in a yeere yet this proportion we find betweene them and the weekely Sabbath There are in a yeere seven times seven weeks and a fraction lesse than halfe a seven so that the memory of the creation was seven times in a yeere celebrated more than the memory either of their deliverance out of Egypt or of their reaping the fruits of the land of Canaan the one farre surmounting the other yet their Easter began the day of the yeere whereon they came out of Egypt And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells Thes 41. de Sabbat professeth that God sets out the day by the worke he doth on the
any the least superstitious rigour esteeming it to bee a day left arbitrary and therefore open to all honest exercises and lawfull recreations by which the mind may bee refreshed and the spirits quickened Even in Geneva it selfe according as it is related in the enlargement of Boterus by Robert Johnson all honest exercises shooting in pieces long Bowes crossebowes c. are used on the Sabbath Day and that both in the morning before and after Sermon neither doe the Ministers finde fault therewithall so that they hinder not from hearing of the word at the time appointed Dancing indeed they doe not suffer But this is not in relation to the Sunday but the sport it selfe which is held unlawfull and generally forbidden in the French Churches which strictnesse as some note considering how the French doe delight in dancing hath beene a great hinderance to the growth of the reformed religion in that Kingdome The Doctor indeed saith that Calvin Bullenger Bucerus Exam. Brentius Chemnitius Vrsine and others of the reformed Churches affirme that still the Church hath power to change the Lords Day to some other but hee neither cites their words nor quotes any place out of their writings And as for Calvin whom this Prefacer proposeth as chiefe and the rest as thinking no otherwise thereof then hee did I make no doubt but the passage in Calvin is instit 2. cap. 8. sect 34. where thus he writeth Neque sic tamen septenarium numerum moror ut ejus servituti Ecclesiam astringerem I doe not so regard the number of seven as to tie the Church to the servitude thereof which considered in it selfe might intimate that in his opinion it is indifferent whether wee keepe holy one day in seven or one day in foureteene but the words immediately following doe manifest his meaning to be farre otherwise as namely that we are not so tied to a seventh but that we may solemnize other dayes also by our holy assemblies For thus it followes Neque enim damnavero qui alios conventibus suis solennes dies habeant I condemne not them that keep other dayes holy will any man suppose that some there were well knowne to Calvin who kept other dayes solemn and not the Lords Day and that these men Calvin would not condemne And Gomarus who is most opposite to us in this argument professeth that seeing not onely a time but a sufficient proportion of time is to be set apart for Divine service therefore we must now under the Gospel allow rather a better proportion of time for Divine service than a worse And in this also Rivetus rests in his answer to the first argument of Walaeus contending for one day in seven as necessarily to be allowed to the worship of God De reg Chr. lib. 1. ap 11. For Bullinger I know not where to seeke that which the Doctor aimes at As for Bucer I have shewed before out of him that the Lords Day was by the Apostles themselves consecrated to Divine actions which ordinance the antient Churches observed most religiously and that one of the chief causes hereof was that they might celebrate the memory of Christs resurrection which fell out on the first day of the weeke of power to abrogate this day left unto the Church he saith nothing but to the contrary rather that all they who desire the restoring of Christs Kingdome ought to labour that the religion of the Lords Day may be soundly called backe and be of force Yet saith he it is agreeable to our piety to sanctifie other festivalls also to the commemoration of the Lords chiefe workes whereby he perfected our redemption as the day of his incarnation nativity the Epiphany the passion the resurrection ascension and Pentecost And the place which Doctor Rivet explic decal pag. 189. col 2. allegeth out of Bucer in Mat. 10. to prove that he maintained the day to be alterable is nothing to the purpose and as little doe they make for it which hee allegeth out of Musculus To find out what Chemnitius saith hereupon I turne to his Examen of the connsell of Trent concerning festivalls There pag. 154. col 2. he saith that Christ to show that he kept the Jewes Sabbath freely and not of necessitie against the opinion of necessity touching the abrogation of the Mosaicall Sabbath hee taught both by word and deed By word in saying that the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath and by his deeds as in healing on the Sabbath day and defending his Disciples in plucking the eares of corne Now hereby I take it to be manifest and acknowledged by Chemnitius that none hath power to abrogate the Sabbath but he that is Lord of the Sabbath And seeing even Christians were to have their Sabbath as appeareth by those words of our Saviour pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day which is delivered of the time about the destruction of the Temple by Titus at what time Paul had suffered martyrdome divers yeeres before by whose writings it doth appeare that the Lords Day was kept in place of the Jewes Sabbath both by the practice of the Apostles and the Churches of Galatia and Achaia as Chemnitius acknowledgeth from the force of those places Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 and Apoc. 1.10 in the next columne it followeth that the Lords Day was the Christian Sabbath and so to this day continueth and consequently that none hath power to alter it but hee that is Lord of the Sabbath which is Christ himselfe it being accordingly called the Lords Day Therefore if any pretend that Christ hath delegated this power of his unto the Church it stands upon them to make it good But Chemnitius proceeds pag. 155. col 1. and shewes how the Apostles at the first tolerated their weak faith who without superstition observed dayes Mosaicall Rom. 14. and that such as were stronger in faith after the abrogation of the old Testament judged all dayes to be equall in themselves and none more holy then another We willingly grant as much and adde the reason hereof to wit because the holinesse of the day preferred before his fellowes consisted in some mysterious signification which had reference unto Christ as to come all which kind of shadowes the body being come are now vanished away Hee proceeds saying The Apostles also manifested by their example that in the new Testament it was free to come together either every day or what day soever they thought good to handle the Word and Sacraments and to the publique or common exercises of piety So the Sabbath day and other festivall dayes they taught All this wee willingly grant but here-hence it followeth not that one day of the weeke was not of more necessary observation for the exercises of piety than another Farther saith he that they might manifest that the exercises of Ecclesiasticall assemblies were not tied to certaine dayes they daily persevered in the doctrine of the Apostles
and in breaking bread Act. 2. and 5. and 1 Cor. 5. Now we willingly acknowledge that we Christians are not so bound to one day in the weeke as namely to the Lords Day as that we may not have our holy assemblies more often than once but onely so that we may not keep them lesse often nor omit the celebration of the Lords Day like as the Jews might not omit the celebration of their weekely Sabbath though sometimes many dayes together besides were kept holy by them So we Christians also having our Sabbath as our Saviour signified we should have when he said Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day which Sabbath of ours wee keepe on the Lords Day though we may keep other days holy yet we may not omit this and if any shall take upon them to alter this Sabbath we may be bold to demand of them quo warranto by what warrant from the Lord of Sabbath But Chemnitius proceeds thus Now whereas afterwards the false Apostles did so urge those free observations of the Mosaicall Sabbath and other feasts as by law and with opinion of necessity as to condemne their consciences who observed them not Paul forbad the observation of them All which we willingly acknowledge but that hereupon they began first to ordaine another day in the weeke for their Ecclesiasticall assemblies and exercises of piety which yet Chemnitius proves not I leave it to the indifferent to judge by comparing his opinion with that of Austins who professeth as Chemnitius well knew that the Lords Day was declared unto Christians by the Lords resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity alleged by Chemnitius himselfe p. 156. especially considering the reason moving thē hereunto which Chemnitius confesseth to have been on that day the Lord role from the dead And seeing all festivals as Bishop Lake observes have beene observed in regard of some great worke done on such a day for the good of man whether ever any day brought forth a more wonderfull or more comfortable worke to mankind than the first day of the weeke which was the day of our Saviours resurrection from the dead let the Christian world judge This day Chemnitius saith seems to be called by Saint Iohn the Lords Day which appellation all antiquity did afterwards retaine and use yet notwithstanding saith he we doe not read that the Apostles did impose upon mens consciences in the new Testament the observation of that day by any Law or Precept but the observation was free for order sake Let us duly weigh and consider this together with the reasons following Calvine distinguisheth the observation of a day for order sake and the observation of a day for some mysterious signification sake had Chemnitius thus distinguished we would have subscribed thereunto and confessed that now adayes wee observe no day for any mysterious signification sake but onely for order sake And thus under the Gospel wee are freed from observation of daies for mysteries sake not free from observation of one certaine day in the weeke for order sake At for his phrase of imposing the observation of the Lords day upon mens consciences this phrase is most improper and unseasonable in this case it is onely proper and seasonable in case the thing imposed be of a burthensome nature like unto that Saint Peter speakes of Acts 15.10 saying Now therefore why tempt yee God to lay a yoke on the Disciples neckes which neither our Fathers nor we were able to beare Such indeed was the yoke of circumcision which provoked Zippora according to common opinion driven to circumcise her sonne to save her husbands life to throw the fore-skin at her husbands feet calling him a bloody husband for urging her thereunto But what burthen is it save unto the flesh to rejoyce in the Lord to sabbatize with him to walke with him in holy meditation Was it no burthen to the godly Jewes to consecrate one day in seaven to the exercises of Piety under the Law and shall it bee a burthen to us in the time of the Gospell Or can it bee conceaved to bee a greater burthen unto us to keepe our Christian Sabbath on the Lords Day then on any other day of the weeke was there ever any day of the weeke markt out unto us with a more honourable or more wonderfull worke to draw us to rejoyce in the Lord thereon then the first day of the weeke whereon our Saviour rose by his Resurrection to bring life and immortality to light yet we confesse we reade of no Law nor Precept for this in the new Testament but we reade that ever under the Gospell wee must have a Sabbath to observe Math. 24.20 And wee know and Chemnitius knew full well that it belongs to the Lord of the Sabbath to change it and consequently to ordaine it and that it was changed and the Lords Day observed generally in the Apostles dayes none that I know makes question of and how could thi◠bee but by the Apostles ordinance and is it likely they would take upon them this authority without a calling And why should that day of the weeke and not that day of the yeare bee called the Lords Day if not for the same use under the Gospell that the Lords Day was of under the Law especially that day under the Law which was the Jewes Sabbath being now abrogated and lastly wee finde it manifestly spoken of the day of Christs Resurrection Psal 118.24 This is the day that the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it yet lastly wheras Chemnitius will have it free and hee hath already manifested that hee speakes of it in this sense as not to be so tied to this day but that we may observe other dayes wee willingly grant that in this sense it is free Now let us consider his reason following For saith hee if we are freed from the Elements which by God himselfe in the old Testament were ordained and commanded how should we be tyed by the decrees of men But alas this reason of his hath no proportion the Elements hee speakes of were but shaddowes the body whereof is Christ and now Christ is revealed they were wont to bee called not onely Mortua but mortifera Yet the observation of one day in seven still continues to bee the Commandement of God delivered not to Moses as ceremonies were but by word of mouth proclaimed on mount Sina and naturall reason suggests unto us that wee must allow unto Gods service as good a proportion of time under the Gospell as hee required of the Jewes under the Law Now if one day in seven must bee set apart in common reason what day is to bee preferred for this before the Lords Day the day of Christs rest from the worke of redemption in suffering the sorrows of death as the day of the Lords rest from the Creation was appointed to the Jewes for their Sabbath And this Resurrection of
Iohn Like as the Sabbath in the Old Testament is called the Lords Day which which if he had and withall considered how strange it were for us to set any day in the weeke apart for the exercises of Piety rather then the Lords Day I am perswaded hee would not have contented himselfe with this answer For certainly many other holy dayes have beene and are set apart for Divine Service yet never were called any one of them the Lords day He talkes of a bare custome of the Church for it a thing incredible that both Jewes and Gentiles throughout all Nations should so universally concurre without the guidance of some authorative constitution or some generally convincing evidence by the very light of common Christian evidence or both And as for liberty left to the Church hereabout it seemeth so unreasonable unto my poore judgement that if it were it should become us by earnest and hearty prayer to seeke unto God to take that liberty from us and bee pleased himselfe to guide us by some manifest ordinance to prevent dissension and confusion yet well fare Doctor Rivetus hee will not have this liberty extend any further then provided that some reason and necessity should urge the changing of the day for in the next columne hee professeth that a sufficient cause of the change and abrogation of the day cannot bee given The observation of other dayes and particularly of the Sabbath as well as the Lords Day by some in the Primitive Church is no evidence at all that it was indifferent unto them whether they would observe the Lords Day or no. Perk. The third argument Rivetus omits the fourth is this That which was prefigured in that it was prefigured was prescribed But the Lords Day was prefigured in the eighth day wherin the children of the Iewes were circumcised therefore it was prescribed to be kept the eighth day This the ancient Fathers by name Cyprian and Austin have reasoned and taught Rivet Answ To this Doctor Rivetus answers by denying the assumption and saying that no probable reason can be brought to prove that day was prefigured by the eighth day wherein children were circumcised Reply And indeed that day being the eighth day after birth doth not so conveniently denote the first day of the weeke But Master Perkins his argument hath another part farre more principall drawne from Psal 118.22.23.24 Which Doctor Rivetus relates after this menner Perk. The day of the Resurrection was prefigured by that day wherein the Stone which the builders refused was made the head of the Corner But that day was the Sabbath Day therefore by the Sabbath was prefigured the Lords Day To this he answers by denying that the Sabbath day was the day wherein the builders refused that stone For the Scribes Rivet Answ Pharises and rulers of the people did alwayes reject Christ and not the Sabbath day onely And if Austin and Cyprian before him apprehended any such figure that was by way of accommodation onely not that herein they acknowledged any proper figure For answer whereunto I say first Reply that Master Perkins delivers not this simply of the Sabbath day but of the Sabbath of the new Testament as much as to say the first day of the weeke whereon Christ rose For this was the day wherein the stone which the builders refused was made the head of the corner and of this day the Prophet speakes when he saith This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it That like as the Jewes had cause to make that day festivall and to rejoyce therein wherein God advanced David to the kingdome who was as a stone refused before by the builders in like sort Christians had as great cause nay farre greater to keepe that day festivall and to rejoyce therein when God raised Christ from the dead and gave all power unto him and making him the head of his Church as being now manifested to be the sonne of God who was before as a stone despised and refused of the builders but as on this day was made the head of the corner And not Cyprian and Austin onely but Ambrose upon the Psalmes so understands it and Arnobius also upon the Psalmes as Hereshbachius observeth And Doctor Rivetus is too blame in construing Perkins in such manner as if he should confine the builders rejection of Christ to the Sabbath day whereof there is no colour in Master Perkins but that which he insists upon is this that the day wherein Christ formerly rejected by the builders was made hhead the of corner was the day of Christs resurrection and of this day it is said by the Psalmist This is the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it Which is most remarkable for the justification of our celebration of the Lords Day as by Divine authority Especially considering what Bishop Lake that learned and pious and most rationall Divine hath observed that alwayes the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and for proofe hereof hee appeales to the due consideration of all festivalls in the observation thereof whether Divine or humane Master Perkins his words are these but I know not how Doctor Rivetus might be deceived by a mis-translation of them The day of Christs resurrection was prefigured by that day wherein the stone which the builders refused was made the head of the corner Psal 118.24 and in that it was prefigured it was appointed by God For then it appeared to be true which Peter said of Christ that God had made him both Lord and Christ Act. 12.36 And whereas he saith the Fathers doe so construe the place by way of accommodation that hath place onely when the Text it selfe doth not so accommodate it But the Text it selfe in this place doth manifestly evince that this is spoken in reference to the day of Christs resurrection Perkins The last reason of Master Perkins is this God is Lord of times and seasons and therefore in all equity the altering and disposing thereof is in his hands and belongs to him alone Act. 1.10 Times and seasons the Father hath kept in his own hands Againe Christ is called the Lord of the Sabbath And Antiochus Epiphanes is condemned by the Holy Ghost because hee tooke upon him to alter times Dan. 7.25 Besides that Daniel saith it is God alone that changeth times and seasons Dan. 2.4 Now if it be proper unto God as to create so to determine and dispose of times then he hath not left the same to the power of any creature And therefore as the knowledge thereof so the appointment and alteration of the same either in generall or particular belongs not to the Church but is reserved to him The Church then neither may nor can alter the Sabbath Day Rivet Answ To this D. Rivetus answereth that the words of Daniel touching the change of times and
opportunities are delivered in reference to the periods and changing of Kingdomes and Monarchies as appeares by the argument of the Prophecy Reply And no more doth D. Rivetus deliver in excepting against his annotations for as he acknowledgeth M. Perkins scriptorem modestissimum a most modest writer so he carryeth himselfe most modestly towards him But I hope without any breach of modesty I may professe that I find no accuratenesse in each of his allegations save one namely that wherein Christ professeth himself Lord of the Sabbath and it is enough for the present that God reserves to himself power of ordering times for his service yet it cannot be denied but God hath left power to his Church upon good occasion to set some time apart for exercise of piety But whereas it is apparant that God himselfe tooke upon him the ordering of the time for the Sabbath and accordingly Christ calls himselfe The Lord of the Sabbath as he constituted it so none but he can abrogate it and ordaine another in the place of it Now whereas D. Rivetus saith that hee hath left this power unto his Church it stands him upon to prove it We find our Saviour supposeth us Christians to have a Sabbath after his resurrection Matth. 24.20 as well as the Jewes had before wee find that in the Apostles dayes the first day of the weeke was set apart for this which could not be but by the joynt consent of the Apostles we find that the day of the weeke not the day of the yeere wherein Christ rose by Saint Iohn himselfe called the Lords Day an evident argument that in his time it was so generally received We find that never any worke of God did give better cause to professe that The day thereof was the day that the Lord had made let us be glad and rejoyce therein then the day wherein Christ rose from the dead and thereby was declared to be the Sonne of God even that stone which the builders refused to be made the head of the corner And how strange is it that the Church for 1500. yeeres space should no where offer to alter it if in no other respect yet in this to manifest that the Church is indued with such liberty and power and to prevent the superstitious observation of the day as a thing necessary if it be not necessary Lastly if this liberty be still in the Church in case they should exercise this liberty what inconvenience would follow upon the exercising of a lawfull liberty But infinit inconvenience would follow hereupon for seeing this liberty is equally communicated to each particular Church it will follow that it is lawfull for our English Church to institute the Munday the French Church the Tuesday the Hollanders the Wednesday the Germans Thursday the Danes Friday the Swedes the Saturday and the Polonians the Sunday what an intolerable scandall were this amongst Christians Thus our liberty opens way to revive the Jewes Sabbath or to concurre with the Turks who make Friday their holy day nay what scandall also to all the Heathens throughout the world For suppose that as the Jewes keepe the Saturday and the Turks their Fryday so other heathenish nations according to their severall religions should divide the other daies of the weeke to be hallowed between them each religion keeping to their own day most exactly When they should find no agreement amongst Christians what an intolerable scandall were this unto them to harden them against the profession of the Gospel when they see so little agreement among the professors of it And what should move us to affect liberty in this which opens a way to such dissention and confusion and not rather rejoyce in this that to prevent such miserable inconveniences God himselfe hath marked out unto us the first day of the weeke to be the Lords Day in place of the Jewish Sabbath which was the Lords holy day unto them by the most wonderful and comfortable work that ever was wrought even the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour from the dead thereby manifesting him to be the Sonne of God and fulfilling that prophecie of old concerning the stone which the builders refused and making him the head of the corner on that day all power being given unto him both in heaven and in earth Matth. 28. thus drawing us in the Prophets language to professe and say first This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes and secondly to conclude there-hence in the words immediately following This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it this undoubtedly is our Christian festivall this day of the weeke and not this day of the yeere which is remarkable being called by Saint Iohn The Lords Day the day wherein Christ appeared unto him and gave unto him the booke of Revelation concerning the secrets of his providence to be fulfilled upon the world for the time to come even till his second comming to destroy the world with fire and to blesse us with new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse the metropolis of which new world shall be new Jerusalem And albeit Doctor Rivetus according to his pious ingenuity which crownes his learning and cathedrall sufficiencies professeth that what hitherto hath beene spoken by him of the choyce and possible change of that day he hath not to any such end ventilated as to favour their profanesse who on holy dayes and chiefely on that day which by so universall a consent even from the beginning of Christianity hath beene consecrated to such use neglecting Gods Service not onely refuse to omit one day in prosecuting workes tending to the use of life temporall but also by unnecessary actions as by pleasant sports stage playes by intemperance also and riot profane the day not without reason dedicated to the Lord. Yet what just occasion hereby may bee in all places and like enough is taken in most places by this doctrine of his who seeth not For albeit publike authority in some places hath by lawes countenanced the solemnization of the Lords Day for which wee of this land have cause to blesse God so as I thinke no Nation more in consideration of many Lawes one after another and by degrees made to restraine abuses on that day as tending to the manifest profanation thereof and by none more then by that act of Parliament in the first of King Charles wherein all men are forbidden to come out of their Parishes upon that day about any sports and pastime evidently manifesting hereby as formerly hath beene proved that all sports and pastimes are prophanations of our Christian Sabbath observed on that day and that in the judgement of the whole Parliament consisting of the Kings Majesty the head thereof with his Lords spirituall all the Bishops of the Kingdome and temporal together with the House of Commons yet if once it shall be receaved according to D. Rivets doctrine of the Sabbath that it
is in the power of each Church to set apart what proportion of time they thinke fit for Divine Service and what day they thinke fit who perceives not that they may if they will order it in such a manner as that twise a day they shall come to Church and the rest of the day spend as they thinke good either in the works of their calling or upon their pleasures And whence all this zeale so opposite to holinesse in the issue proceeds I know not save onely to uphold the credit of Calvin who professeth that he doth not so regard the number of seaven as that he would tie any to the servitude thereof and yet I have endeavored to shew that neither this nor other passages taken out of his institutions makes any thing for them And withall it is a wonder to behold how this of Calvin is taken up and obtruded upon us by them who otherwise hate both the name and memory of Calvin And as for Doctor Rivets honest and pious instructions as concerning the duties and out demeanors to bee performed on this day we may easily perceive how little worth they are and how easily they vanish into smoake after that hee hath in the doctrinall part of the Sabbath layd so unhappy a foundation and that by so poore reasons and meane cariage of himselfe that as I verily thinke throughout all his writings there is not to bee found the like For consider whether hee had any hope to set so much as a face and outward shew of probability upon his discourse unlesse first he had manifestly corrupted the adversaries tenet as appeares by his proposing it p. 119. Col. 1. By these saith he and other arguments drawn from Christian liberty it is sufficiently deduced that they who maintaine the Sabbath day not so much to be taken away as to be translated unto the Lords Day and so changed and doe indeed thinke it more holy then another day and that not onely in regard of ordination and use but in respect of signification and effect doe crosse some without Christian liberty which is most certaine of the Papists And indeed Walaeus makes it appeare that Calvin writes herein against the superstitious Papists And did Rivetus oppose them onely it were well but it is apparent that hee disputes not so much against Papists in this argument as against Protestants even such as himselfe But can hee shew of any of them that they account the Lords Day more holy then any other in respect of any mysterious signification for so Calvin speaks in this place or effect undoubtedly he cannot We observe a day in the weeke only for order and policy sake Ecclesiasticall mysterious significations in dayes were peculiar only to the Jewes Only we thinke it fit that to prevent dissension and confusion God should marke out that day unto us to be observed and not leave it unto us and so hee hath the Scripture calling the first day of the weeke the Lords Day and that upon such a ground as a greater was never knowne to ground a festivity thereupon consecrated to the exercises of piety even the day wherein the stone that was refused by the builders was made the head of the corner This was the Lords doing and it is and ever shall be marvellous in our eyes and gives us cause to say with the Psalmist thereupon This is the day which the Lord hath made we will reioyce and be glad in it So that all the passages in the Apostles writings against difference of dayes are no more against us then against Doctor Rivetus himselfe Now it is time to returne to our Prefacer I doe not finde that Suarez undertakes to defend the Doctrine of Calvin and Chemnitius such as here is pretended to bee their Doctrine but rather opposeth it If such were their doctrine as this Prefacer would faine obtrude upon us from the authority of the D. discourse which hee translateth For Suarez professeth Celebritatem Dominicae diei haberi ex communi usu sensu Ecclesiae in ipsa scriptura Novi Testamenti commendari that the celebrity of the day is had by the universall use and sense of the Church and is commended unto us in the very Scripture of the New Testament I have endeavoured to justifie it out of the Old Testament also and in expresse tearmes that it is to bee unchangeable Practicè moraliter practically and morally as Doctor Prideaux acknowledgeth and withall expoundeth after his understanding of it and Doctor Rivetus also affirming this kinde of unchangeablenesse to arise from hence that no sufficient cause can be given of the change and abrogation of it This Prefacer and such as are of his spirit may doe well to deale plainly and to professe that it is in the power of the Church to make the Lords Day to cease to be the Lords Day From their Doctrine pretended by him hee proceedes to their practise professing it to bee devoyd of any the least superstitious rigour esteeming it to be a day left arbitrary and therefore open to all lawfull and honest recreations by which the minde may be refreshed and the spirit quickened as in Geneva all honest exercises shooting in pieces long Bowes crosse Bowes are used in the Sabbath day and that both in the morning before and after the Sermon And truly I doe not finde my selfe prone to censure them for any superstition in this But this author takes liberty to censure them for superstitious who thinke these courses unlawfull on the Sabbath Day I make bold to call the Lords Day our Sabbath because our Saviour plainly gives us to understand that wee Christians should have one day in the weeke for our Sabbath Ma. 24.20 as wel as the Jewes had and secondly because the booke of Homilies professeth that Sunday is our Sabbath Nobis non licet esse tam disertis We may not be so elegant as to censure them for profaning the Lords Day by these and such like courses Yet the act of Parlament 1. Caroli forbids any man to come out of his Parish on the Lords Day about any sports and pastimes which restraint tending to this end namely to preserve the Sabbath from profanation doth manifestly give us to understand that to come out of a mans parish on that day about any sports or pastimes is to profane the Sabbath and seeing as before I have shewed that to come out of a mans parish on that day about such a worke as doth not profane the Sabbath is not to profane the Sabbath as to heare a sermon or to fetch a surgeon or Physitian to a sick person in ease of necessity but onely to come out of a mans owne Parish about such a worke as doth profane the Sabbath such a comming out of a mans own Parish on that day and such alone doth profane the Sabbath hence it followeth evidently that all manner of sports and pastimes on that day are so many profanations of the Sabbath in
Besides I have shewed in reason the unreasonablenesse both of changing the day and the intollerable scandall that would follow upon it and the unreasonablenesse of not changing it if it be not of divine institution considering how prone wee are through the continuall observation thereof to conceave that to be a necessary duty and so to be plunged into superstition ere we are aware if it prove to be no necessary duty In the next place hee tells us how that some amongst us have revived againe the Iewish Sabbath though not the day it selfe yet the name and thing Teaching that the Commandement of sanctifying every seaventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall that whereas all things else in the Iewish were so changed that they were cleane to be done away this day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and lastly that the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were only abrogated at Christs comming All which positions are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England as in a comment on those Articles perused and by the lawfull authority of the Church allowed to be publique is most cleare and manifest Here wee have a distinction of a Jewish Sabbath brought in yet not the day a distinction contrived with such wisedome and perspicacity as it seemes to exceed all humane discretion For I verily thinke that from the beginning of the Primitive Church there was never heard of a Jewish Sabbath to be kept any other then upon their day The materialls are first that the name Sabbath is retained and well may it be in my judgement though some entertaine sublime reaches to the contrary if our Saviour have any authority with us who adviseth his Disciples to pray that their flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day which is spoken by him in reference to the time about the destruction of Ierusalem at what time the Lords Day was come in place of the Jewes Sabbath among the Christian congregations and that by apostolicall substitution And in the very booke of our Homilies it is expressely sayd that the Sunday is now our Sabbath And his Majesties briefes for collection so stile it And in the conference at Hampton Court it was so stiled by Doctor Raynolds and the motion he made thereabout generally yeelded unto so that the State hitherto seemes to be censured by this bold Prefacer The next aspersion is that the thing also is revived But what thing the Jewes had peculiar sacrifice both morning and evening which doubled the dayly sacrifice this surely is not revived There were besides two things in the Jewish Sabbath the one was a rest the other was the sanctifying of that rest As for the rest if that were not it were no Sabbath Yet our Saviour calls it a Sabbath our Church calls it a Sabbath our State calls it a Sabbath And Austin calls us to such a rest on the Lords Day as that therein we must tantum Deo vacare tantum cultibus divinis vacare onely rest to God onely rest for divine worship And Calvin who is taken to be no friend of ours in this case professeth that we must rest from all our works so farre forth as they are avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus avocations from holy studies and meditations but not for any mysterious signification sake and that herein consists the difference betweene the Jewish rest and our Christians rest and I am exactly of his opinion for this As for the sanctification of this rest I trust wee are as much bound to the performance hereof and that in as great measure and with as great devotion under the Gospel as ever the Jewes were under the Law And at the hearing of this Commandement as well as of any other our Church hath taught us to pray Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this Law And I find it wondrous strange to heare that some should not spare to professe that this was shuffled in they know not how At length wee come to the particular charges the first is that some should teach that The Commandement of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall and Master Rogers is quoted for this on the Article Art 7. hee quotes Master Doctor Bownde pag. 7. Now truely it cannot be denied but that when the fourth Commandement is read unto us in our Congregations wee are taught to pray unto God to shew such mercy unto us as to incline our hearts to the keeping of this law And both master Rogers and this Prefacer are to be presumed to have subscribed as well as others and by their subscription acknowledged that this is nothing contrary to Gods Word that we are as much bound to the observation of this Commandement as of any other and consequently to keepe the Sabbath and doe no manner of worke thereon that may hinder the sanctifying thereof Now Master Doctor Bownds words after hee had cited Chrysostome speaking thus I am hic ab initio c. Here now even from the beginning God hath insinuated this Doctrine unto us teaching us in circulo hebdomadis diem unum that in the compasse of a weeke one whole day is to be put apart for a spirituall rest unto God are these Vnto all which may be added that for profe oth at this Commandement is naturall morall and perpetuall that I say may be added which was practised among the Gentiles and all the Heathen And now Do. Bowndes purpose unto the p. 30. is to be proved only this that a Sabbath was from the beginning and still is to be kept and that in the proportion of one day in seven and after that proceeds to prove what day the Sabbath should be kept his words are these p. 30. Now as we have hitherto seene that there ought to be a Sabbath day so it remaineth that we should heare upon what day this Sabbath should be kept and here he sheweth that this is not left unto the Church but prescribed by God himselfe as who prescribed one day unto the Jewes and another day unto us Christians but still one in seven The same was the opinion both of Bellarmine and Master Hooker in his Ecclesiasticall policy Whereas both Master Rogers and the Prefacer so carry the matter as if by Doctor Bowndes opinion we Christians were bound to keepe our Sabbath on the same day whereon the Jewes were bound to keepe theirs which is most untrue though the fourth Commandement may be indifferently accommodated to our Christian Sabbath as it was unto the Jewish Sabbath save onely as touching the reason given which hath expresse reference to the creation but our Christian Sabbath stands in reference to the worke of Redemption Each is the rest on a seventh day after six dayes of labour and as they were bound to sanctifie their seventh so are we bound to sanctifie ours and
as that was rested on and sanctified in remembrance of Gods rest from the worke of Creation so is ours rested on in remembrance of Christs rest from the worke of Redemption so that our day of rest is but translated from the day of the Lord our Creators rest to the day of the Lord our Redeemers rest And on this ground might the Church justly teach us to pray at the hearing of this fourth Commandement Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this law But like enough both Master Rogers and this Prefacer might be of Brentius his opinion that it is left indifferent to the Church at this day to content themselves with observing of one day in foureteene if it pleaseth them But this was not the opinion of Pope Alexand. the third who professeth that Tam vereris quam novi Testamenti pagina septimam diem ad humanam quietē specialiter deputavit Both the old and new Testament hath appointed the seventh day for the rest of man which Suarez thus interpreteth That is each Testament hath approved the custome of assigning every seventh day of the weeke for rest which is formally to appoint a seventh day though the same day materially be not alwayes appointed and thus it is true that that seventh day in the old Law was the Sabbath day but in the new it is the Lords Day now when we say the observation of one day in seven is naturall our meaning is not neither was it D. Bowndes meaning that this proportion of time is knowne by the light of nature to be that which of duty should be consecrated unto God herein rather it becomes us to wait upon God and he having defined it now we say nothing can be devised by man more agreeable to reason than this Azorius the Jesuit professing it to be most agreeable to reason And Doctor Field as Master Broade voucheth him spared not to say that to him who knowes the story of the creation it doth appeare in reason that one day in seven is to be consecrated unto God onely let us not looke for reason demonstrative in matter of morality Aristotle long agoe hath professed that not demonstration but perswasion alone hath place in Ethicks yet we may justly call that naturall which from the originall was common to all nations and that such was the observation of the seventh day the learned have sufficiently proved Secondly if it be not morall what shall it be Is it judiciall or ceremoniall Never any man hitherto devised any ceremoniality in the proportion of one day in seven well it may be positive yet so as to this day from the beginning of the world this proportion was never altered and if I should live till the day be altered by any sober Christian Congregation I thinke I should live till the comming of Christ which the Christians in Austins time conceived that it would be on the Lords day I come to the second charge which is this whereas all things else in the Iewish Church were so changed that they were cleane taken away this day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and for this Master Rogers quotes Doct. Bownde p. 20. onely Master Rogers saith not that all things were changed as the Prefacer doth but onely that all Iewish things were changed now judge whether Master Rogers might not have opposed Doctor Andrews as well as Doctor Bownde For in his Catechet doctrine pag. 209. having proposed this question But is not the Sabbath a ceremony and so abrogated by Christ He answers it in this manner Doe as Christ did in the cause of divorce looke whether it were so from the beginning now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sinne and so before there needed any Saviour and so before there was any ceremony or figure of a Saviour And if they say it prefigured the rest that we shall have from our sinnes in Christ we grant it and therefore the day is not changed but yet no ceremony proved Hee proceeds to prove that it was no ceremony first from the Law secondly from the Gospel Eph. 2.4 thus All ceremonies were ended in Christ but so was not the Sabbath For Matth. 24.20 Christ bids them pray that their visitation be not on the Sabbath day so that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death Now what doth Doctor Bownde affirme forty yeeres agoe which Doctor Andrewes did not in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine I come to the third and last That the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were justly abrogated at Christs comming This very point Doctor Andrewes maintaines by divers arguments as well as D. Bownde which yet is rightly to be understood to wit not of the observation of the seventh day from the creation but of the observation of one day in seven So that in M. Rogers his Brentian judgement in this particular Doctor Andrewes who afterwards became Bishop of Winchester might be accounted a Sabbatarian as well as D. Bownde All these positions the Prefacer saith are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England but by whom condemned by none but by M. Rogers and by the same reason he might say that the doctrine of Doctor Andrewes was condemned also for contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England to wit by M. Rogers And consider his absurd inference from the seventh Article of the Church of England The Article saith that Christians are not bound at all to the observation of Iudaicall ceremonies Hence he inferres that they whom he calls Our home Sabbatarians are adversaries to this truth in part namely in as much as they deny the Sabbath to be a ceremony But doth our Church affirme the Sabbath to be a ceremony Nothing lesse this M. Rogers of his owne head layes downe for a principle namely that the Sabbath was a ceremony to obtrude upon us as if himselfe had as much authority as a whole Convocation And D. Andrewes takes upon him to disprove this very point which Rogers supposeth as a principle and that by various arguments Belike D. Andrewes deserved not to be numbred amongst the greatest Clerks of these later times nor D. Lake neither nor Bishop Babington And as for the judgement of the ancient Fathers it appeares what skil the Prefacer hath in them and what respect he beares unto them by the learning he hath bewrayed in this preface Had he found in them how much the forbidding of dancing in their dayes did hinder the growth of Christian Religion we should have heard of it undoubtedly as well as how it hath hindred the growth of the reformed Religion in France out of Heylins Geography yet their doctrinalls which I have shewed to be the doctrinalls of Doctor Andrewes as well as of Doctor Bownde yea and could shew it to be the doctrine of divers other late Bishops in this Church though dangerous in themselves not half so
them And it is well knowne to some what the former Archbishop of Canterbury professed to the face of M. Broade when he came to move for the printing of a second book concerning the Sabbath What Bishop can our opposites name of this Church whose praise is among the writers of these times that hath manifested his opinion in opposition to these As for the judgements of all kinde of writers which he boasts of I thinke never came a Divine to take pen in hand to vaunt so much and performe so little As for the unsafe condition of our Tenets which he suggests excepting those monstrous and wild Tenets mentioned by M. Rogers for which I know no better evidence than his word and that in very odde manner delivered I know nothing unsafe nothing dangerous in any Tenet of ours who now seeme to walke as upon the pinacles of the Temple and indeed in this respect they are like to prove very dangerous to us yet I would it were not more dangerous to the Church of God to be bereaved of so many faithfull Pastors For certainly it shall be honourable unto them they cannot suffer in a more honorable cause than this in standing for the sanctifying of the Lords Day in memory of his resurrection who that day being formerly a stone refused of the builders was made the head of the corner For what danger is it to maintaine that from the Creation the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and what a shamefull course is it so to expound it as in reference to a time 2000. and 4. or 500. yeeres after and that in spight of the ancient Fathers And manifest reason as appeares by division of time into weekes even from the creation and so continuing to the time of the Law delivered on the mount Sinai as appeares by the story of falling of Manna and the Jewes gathering of it on sixe dayes none falling now being gathered on the seventh as the day on the week whereon God rested after he had made the world in six What danger in maintaining that God required from the beginning and afterwards specified so much in the Law that one day in seven is to be consecrated unto Gods service and hence to inferre that if God required so much of the Jews under the Law it were most unreasonable and unconscionable we should not afford unto him and his service as good a proportion of time under the Gospel Thirdly what danger is there in affirming that the Lords Day is of Divine institution Is it not Scripture that calls it the Lords Day And what day was called the Lords Day before but the day of the Jewes Sabbath And hath not our Saviour manifestly given us to understand that even Christians were to have their Sabbath as the Jewes had theirs as Bishop Andrewes accommodates the place Matth. 24.20 And was the resurrection of Christ any thing inferiour to the creation to give a day unto us Christians like as Gods rest from creation commended that day to the Jewes Especially considering that a new creation requires a new Sabbath as Athanasius delivered it of old And D. Andrewes of late yeeres treading in the steps of that ancient Father or rather of all the ancient Fathers And what danger in maintaining that the Lords Day is entire and whole to be consecrated to Divine service did Austin speake dangerously when he professeth that thereon we must tantum Deo vacare tantuÌ„ cultibus divinis vacare would this Prefacer be content to be found dancing about a May pole or in a Morrice-dance that day that Christ should come in flaming fire to render vengeance to all them that know not God nor obey the Gospel of Christ Jesus Nay would hee not feare to rue the danger of his doctrine when it will be too late to correct it and all the profanenesse that hee hath promoted by this preface of his should rise up in judgement against him yet now he thinkes he could not goe about a better worke than by this preface translation to harden them in their profane and impure courses all his care at this time is to prevent superstition a wonder it is to see how zealous men of his spirit are to avoyd and shun superstition Belike all these must be censured for Zelotes that complaine that the Lords day is with us licentiously yea sacrilegiously profaned yet these are the times whereof S. Paul prophecied that men should be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God yet Doctor Prideaux could take liberty to professe of the Jewes that by their Bacchanalian rites they gave the world just occasion to suspect that they did consecrate their Sabbaths unto devils rather than unto Gods service yet now adayes they that oppose revels on the Sabbath day are censured and condemned of Judaisme Neither is D. Prideaux censured by way of scorne for a zelote in this but unlesse wee concurre with this Prefacer in thinking that the forbidding of dancing in the French Churches hath hindred the growth of the reformed Religion there and that upon the bare credit of Heylins Geography wee must in scorne be termed zelotes Belike Bishop Babington by this bold Prefacer would be censured for a zelote considering that on Exodus 16. pag. 122. hve writes in this manner May not a good soule thus reason with himselfe This people of his might not gather Manna and may I safely goe to markets dancings drinkings to wakes and wantons to Beare-baitings and Bul-baitings and such like wicked profanations on the Lords Day Is this to keepe the holy day Can I answer this to my God that gives mee six dayes for my selfe and takes but one to himselfe of which I rob him also And Bishop Austin too deserves to be censured a zelote for that which hee writes in his 3. tract upon Iohn Observe the Sabbath Day it is rather commanded unto us because it is commanded to be observed in a spirituall manner For the Jewes observe the Sabbath day servilely unto luxury unto drunkennesse How much better were it for their Women to spinne Wooll then to dance on that day in their new Moones and in his 44. tract The Jewes rest unto toyes and whereas God commanded the Sabbath to be observed they spend the Sabbath in such things which the Lord forbids Our rest is from evill works their rest is from good works For it is better to goe to plow then to dance but albeit hee be censured as a Zelote yet surely there is no colour why hee should be thought to Judaize in this And let Bishop Nazianzâ—ne passe under the same censure with them who as Dialericus upon the 17. Dominicall after Trinitie Sunday alleageth him professeth that the sanctification of the Sabbath consists not in the hilarity of our bodies nor in the variety of glorious garments nor in eatings the fruite wherof we know to be wantonnesse nor in strewing of Flowers in the wayes which we know to be the manner of the
Parliament with us and that in the dayes of King Charles hath forbidden every man to come out of his parish about any sports and pastimes a manifest evidence that in their judgement the publique prosecuting of such sports and pastimes is a plaine profanation of the Sabbath and so by this authors profound judgement they deserve to be censured as inclining to Judaisme Indeed the use of the very name of Sabbath is now a dayes carped at and why but because it is a sore offence unto them in their way for if a rest from any thing otherwise lawfull in it selfe be required on the Lords Day it seemes most reasonable that a rest is required from sports and pastimes undoubtedly they have neither reason nor authority to except against this For our Saviour useth the word even of Christian times Mat. 24.20 Pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath Day Doctor Andrewes one of the greatest Prelates of this Kingdome accommodates this place to the same purpose All ceremonies saith hee were ended in Christ but so was not the Sabbath For Mat. 24.20 Christs bids them pray that their visitation be not on the Sabbath Day so that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death and by this name hee commonly calls this day wee keepe weekely as holy unto the Lord. The booke of Homilies plainly tells us that the Sunday is our Sabbath In the conference at Hampton Court it is so called without any dislike shewed by any one there present And the onely reason why the ancients put a difference in this not calling it the Sabbath day but the Lords Day was this because Dies Sabbati in Latine signifieth the Saturday which was the Jewes Sabbath But they generally call us to a rest on this day and that most exact as wherein wee must Tantum Deo vacare tantum cultibus divinis vacare as Austin by name not sparing to confesse that Arare melius est quam saltare But Barklay it seemes is of more authority with this Prefacer then Doctor Andrewes and the Church yea and of our Saviour too yet wee calling it by that name understand no other thing then our Christian Sabbath and had rather it were generally called the Lords Day and Doctor Bownde also standeth for this denomination and urgeth it yet is hee accounted a Sabbatarian by Master Rogers though wee all concurre in this that thereon wee ought to keepe and sanctifie our Christian Sabbath And Iacobus de Valentia who was no sectary in the opinion of Barklay to distinguish the Jewish Sabbath from ours calls it Sabbatum legale and conclus 4. hee saith that Christiana religio celebrat verum Sabbatum morale in die Dominica Christian Religion keepeth a true morall Sabbath on the Lords Day yet I willingly confesse this is the usuall course of Papists now a dayes not to call the Lords Day so much as by the name of our Sabbath As for Barklays discourse hee is much fitter to write somthing answerable to Don Quixot then to reason we doe observe the Lords Day as a Sabbath not because God rested that day from the Creation for our Doctor Andrewes of somewhat more credit with us and that not onely for his place but for his sufficiency then Barklay hath delivered it in the Starre Chamber that It hath ever been the Churches Doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the Grave That Sabbath was the last of them And that the Lords Day presently came in place of it And againe That the Sabbath had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are a new creature a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And this hee sayth is deduced plainly First by practise then by precept And this new Sabbath on the Lords Day wee observe because on that day Christ rested from the worke of redemption which was wrought by his death So that though the Lord began his labours in the worke of Creation on the first day of the weeke yet the Lord Christ set an end to his labors in the worke of redemption on the same day of the weeke As for Christs vanquishing the powers of death on that day to wit the first day of the weeke the Women that came to the Sepulchre at sun rising found that he was risen And what powers are these powers of death hee rhetoricates of is there any positive nature in death that our Saviour had neede to take such paines to overcome them The Lord himselfe when hee rested he rested onely from Creation he that was best acquainted with his courses hath told us saying Pater usque hodie peratur my Father to this day works still and I worke with him yet hee proceeds no farther in the worke of Creation nor Christ being once risen in the worke of redemption S. Iude exhorts us to contend the more earnestly for the faith because some there were craftily crept in who otherwise were like to bereave them of it In like sort wee had never more neede then now to contend for the maintainance of the Lords Day as our Christian Sabbath because too many there are whose practise it is to bereave us of the comfort of it The Doctrine of the Sabbath considered FIrst I come to the Doctrine of the Sabbath translated by the Prefacer I nothing doubt but the Author thereof will take in good part my paines in the discussion of it considering the present occasion urging mee hereunto Out of the variety of his reading hee observes many wild derivations of the name Sabbath and out of his judgment doth pronounce that the Jewes by their Bacchanalian rites gave the World just occasion to suspect that they did consecrate the Sabbath unto Revells rather then Gods service As for the rigorous keeping of the day in such sort Sect. 2. as neither to kindle fire in the Winter-time wherewith to warme themselves or to dresse meat for the sustentation of themselves I am so farre from justifying it that I willingly professe I am utterly ignorant where any such Christians live that presse any such rigorous observation of it The Jewes were bound to observe the rest on that day for a mysterious signification sake and thereupon depended their rigorous observing of a rest as many thinke and not Lyra alone We must know saith hee that rest from manuall works is not now so rigorously observed as in the old Law because meate may be dressed and other things done on the Lords Day which were not lawfull on the Sabbath because that rest was in part figurative as was the whole state under the Law 1 Cor. 10. All things befell them in figure Now in that which is figurative if you take away never so little that is if that which is figurative bee not exactly observed the whole and intire signification faileth like as if you take away but one letter from the name of Lapis the whole and intire signification is destroyed To
his unckle and afterwards his father in Law and one that had as good meanes to know the story of the Creation as Jacob and how that the Lord from the beginning Blessed the seaventh day and sanctified it afterwards Iacobs posterity met with Taske-masters in Egypt And if the Aegyptians had made conscience of setting some time apart for the service of God according to the suggestion of that light which is confessed to extend so farre by nature how improbable is it they would deny this unto their servants The Kings of Persia did not use them so hard but promoted their sacrifices that they might pray for the King Ezr. 6.10 and the Kings Children Traian made a Law that the Jewes should not be molested on their Sabbath The Turkes at this day give liberty unto Christians for the free exercise of their religion And why should wee thinke the Aegyptians more rigorous to the Israelites then the Babylonians were to the Iewes Or if alike why may not a man conclude as well of the Iewes in Babylon as of the Israelites in Egypt that If they did observe the Sabbath they were sure of punishment from man if they did neglect it they were sure of vengeance from God The Canon of Laodicâ—a enjoyning the celebration of the Lords day hath this caution si possint which is thought to be spoken in reference to servants under the tyranny of Heathen masters And if the observation of the Sabbath may give way to the exercise of charity towards others and of mercy towards beasts may it not much more to the exercise of mercy towards our owne bodies yet what if all this were granted who seeth not that if there be any strength in this argument they may by as good reason dispute against the profession of Christianity under persecuting tyrants For if they doe professe christianity under such they are sure of punishment from man if not they are sure of vengeance from God So that to no such straights are wee put as is devised like as the state of the question obtruded upon us is devised also but that I have formerly cleered and shewed that wee are to distinguish 1. of time in generall to be set apart for Gods service 2. of the proportion of time in speciall 3. of the day under that proportion of time in particular And how farre the light of nature doth direct us in all these That the sanctification of the seventh day as commanded from the beginning unto man I have already proved in the former Section and also that reason justifieth this drawne from the division of time into weekes as which had its course from the beginning of the World and how authority both ancient and moderne doth countenance this way of ours farre more then the contrary And Manasses ben Israel one of the ancient wise Doctors of the Jewes observes that when the Jewes are bid to remember that they were servants in Egypt this is as if it had beene sayd remember how that in Egypt where thou servedst thou wast constrayned to worke even upon the Sabbath day In Exod. queast 36. Upon the Lords blessing the seventh day and sanctifying it from the beginning of the World and upon the fourth Commandement is founded our observation of the Sabbath as Chrysostome hath professed that God hath manifested from the beginning that one day in the circle of the weeke ought to be set apart for a spirituall rest All confesse that there is a difference betweene 1. Time in generall to be set apart for Gods service 2. And the proportion of that time 3. And the particularity of the day in that proportion The first is generally receaved to be morall the other two some had rather call positive then ceremoniall because they conceave it to have beene instituted in Paradise before the fall when there was no neede of any ceremony They who do most judiciously discourse of ceremony in the fourth Commandement doe not call it ceremoniall hand over head but with reference to the rest of the day And herein the ceremoniality they apply to the rest on the seventh day As for the ceremoniality to be found in the proportion of time indefinitely considered as in one day of seaven I never read nor heard till now Yet wherein this ceremoniality doth consist I meane the thing signified thereby is not explicated at all neither in respect of the proportion of time as of one day in seven nor in reference to the particular day Yet the Jewes rest on the seventh day is generally conceaved to prefigure Christs rest in the grave that day full and whole and onely that day And as Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his Starre Chamber speech professeth that It hath ever been the Churches doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the grave That Sabbath was the last of them So Austin de Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 11. Beda in Hexameron on Genosis Aquin. 2.2 q. 121. art 4. Piscat on Luc. 14. And albeit the rest from workes may have a ceremoniall significaton of a rest from sinne in the way of grace as Ezech. 20.12 and a rest both from sin and sorrow which is also a speciall worke of ours through sin Ier. 2.17 hast thou not procured this unto thy selfe because thou hast forsaken the Lord. and that in the way of glory Hebr. 4. yet this is no such ceremony as to be abolished upon the fulfilling of the thing signified for even the Jewes under the Law had their rest from sinne in the way of grace as wee Christians under the Gospell yet neverthelesse observed the Sabbath and that glorious rest which shall not be accomplished till the end of the World is commonly called an eternall Sabbath And undoubtedly that is to be accompted as a rest morall whereunto the sanctification of the day calleth us namely to rest from all workes as they are Avocations from sacred studies and meditations But doth Abulensis accompt the rest of one day in seven ceremoniall and not morall Doctor Willet relates him as of an other opinion and distinguishing thus There are some things which are simply morall and some things simply ceremoniall and some things of a mixt kinde as being partly morall partly ceremoniall Simply morall are those things which are grounded on the judgement of naturall reason as when naturall reason doth dictate that some time is to be set apart for Gods service But precisely to appoint the seventh day more then any day of the weeke is simply ceremoniall quia non habet fundamentum à ratione sed à voluntate condentis legem because it is not grounded on reason but on the will of the law-maker But to appoint one day of seven and that day wholy for the space of 24. houres to consecrate to Gods service as therein to abstaine from all kinds of worke these things are not purely or simply ceremoniall but partly morall as grounded on the judgement of
although the determination of such a time be not designed But heretofore the seventh day was designed by a Divine praecept positive in the Law of grace the day of the Lords Resurrection so that amongst the people of God one day in the weeke hath been determined for divine service As for our Divines the most generall opinion amongst them is that the observation of one day in seven is of perpetuall observation For albeit Brentius upon Leviticus affirmes that the Church may in these dayes observe but one day in 14. if they will Yet not onely Gomarus and Rivet professe that under the Gospell wee must allow a better proportion of time for Gods service rather then a worse in reference to that which was allowed under the Law But Luther tom 5. fol. 610. professeth that ad minimum unus dies aliquis per hebdomadam is to be chosen for Gods worship and Baldwin in his cases of conscience 2. c. 13. cas 2. touching feasts It is morall saith hee to sanctifie one day in seven Master Hooker confesseth as much in his Ecclesiasticall policy And if Calvin hath a way by himselfe in this there is no reason hee should be introduced to affront the most generall current of our owne Divines mustered up by Walaeus as a cloud of witnesses standing for the morality of one day in seven Yet Walaeus hath cleared also Calvin in this point and that in reference to more pregnant passages then are produced here where nothing is delivered in opposition thereunto the last tends to the confirmation of it For if it be reasonable that one day in seven should be allowed for the ease and recreation of servants what day shall be their Sabbath if not the day of rest and if this be most reasonable I hope in the second place it will be judged most unreasonable that there should be one Sabbath for the Master and another for the servants undoubtedly now God hath gone before us in allotting this proportion of time for his service wee may be bold to say with Azorius and that incorrespondency to Tostatus his discourse that rationi maximè consentaneum est after six worke dayes to consecrate one unto divine service And seeing God hath required such a proportion of time for his service under the Law by the very light of nature it appeares to be most unreasonable wee should allow him a worse proportion under the Gospell and Calvin professeth that Nobis cum veteri populo quoad hanc partem communis est Sabbati necessitas Harm in 4. lib. Mosis in praecep 4. We have as much neede of a Sabbath as ever the Jewes had As touching the three particulars wherein Tostatus is vouched to affirme the fourth Commandement to bee an unstable and alterable ceremony First I have not hitherto found that Tostatus confoundeth the proportion of one day in seven with the particular day under this proportion as if these were equally ceremoniall The rest on the seventh day in the judgement of the ancients prefigured the rest of Christ that day in his grave and in that respect was accompted by them ceremoniall But as for the proportion of one day in seven never yet did I meete with any who set his wits on worke to devise any thing in Christ to be prefigured thereby that so it also might be accompted ceremoniall Yet I nothing doubt but this proportion is alterable by that power whereby it was prescribed but not by any inferour power and so it is accompted by Jacobus de Valentia stabile aeternum stable and everlasting and most unreasonable that wee should not be bound to allow as good a proportion of service unto God under the Gospell as the Jewes were bound to allow him under the Law The rest of the seventh day being ceremoniall wee hold not onely with Tostatus that it is alterable but with Stella that it must be altered and I hope the word it selfe affords evidence enough for this It is true the fourth Commandement in the very front commands the sanctifying the Sabbath not the seventh day but the Sabbath and in like maner it ends with professing that the Lord Blessed the Sabbath day not the seventh sanctified it But when the question is made what Sabbath I should rather answer a rest from all servile works then as here it is answered The seventh day For undoubtedly God doth not therein command us to rest the seventh day in correspondency to the seventh day from the Creation there is commanded one day in seven and a seventh after six dayes of worke But wee must leave it unto God as to prescribe unto us the Master to his servants the proportion of time to be set apart for his service so the particularity of the day also under the specified proportion least otherwise there might be as many different opinions hereabouts and courses according thereunto amongst the people of God as there be dayes in the weeke Now God did appoint the seventh day of the weeke unto the Jewes for their Sabbath but the first day of the weeke hee hath appointed unto us for our Sabbath still observing six dayes worke before and a seventh of rest unto God after And thus Zanchy a learned and judicious Divine interpreteth the fourth Commandement in 4. praecept p. 599. Col. 2. Stat sententia non sine causa factum esse ut in substantia praecepti dictum non sit Memento ut diem septimum sed ut diem Sabbati i. quietis sanctifices Hac enim ratione nos quoque praeceptum hoc servamus dum sanctificamus diem Dominicum quia hic quietis dies nobis est sicut Judaeis fuit septimus I am still of opinion that not without cause it is so ordered that in the substance of the precept it is not sayd remember the seventh day but remember the Sabbath day that is the day of rest to sanctifie it For by this meanes wee also keepe this precept in sanctifying the Lords Day So that this is not the opinion of Doctor Bownde onely and of Master Perkins but of Zanchy also and Iacobus de Valentia advers Iudaeos qu. 2. conclus 4. Christian Religion celebrates a true morall Sabbath on the Lords Day as touching the time in as much as it celebrates it on the day whereon it ought to be celebrated and concludes So the precept of the Sabbath as it is morall remaines in the new time celebrated on the Lords day So Dominicus Bannes formerly alleaged distinguisheth the substance of the praecept from the particular determination of the day and addes that by a positive precept the seventh day was designed unto the Iewes Bannes 22. 4. 44 art 1. but afterwards under the Law of grace was designed the day of the Lords Resurrection So that alwayes to Gods faithfull people was designed one day in the weeke for Divine Service Whereas other festivities sayth hee are in course by the institution of the Church And Doctor Andrewes also sheweth out
of Math. 24.20 that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death and addes that Those which were ceremonies were abrogated but those which were not ceremonies were changed at the Ministery from the Levites to be chosen throughout the World So here the day changed from the day of the Jewes to the Lords Day Revel 1.10 And accordingly interpreteth the fourth Commandement as belonging unto us Christians as bound to observe the Sabbath 1. in our judgment by a reverend esteeming of it not as a day appointed by man 2. in our use set downe Esay 58.13 not following our owne will nor doing our owne workes Hereupon a question is proposed thus But is not the Sabbath a ceremony and so abrogated by Christ and the answer is this Do as Christ did in the case of divorce looke whether it were so from the beginning Now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sin and so before there needed any Saviour and if they say it prefigured the rest we shall have from our sins in Christ We grant it and therefore the day is changed but no ceremony proved The practise of piety is a booke dedicated unto his Majesty that now is when hee was Prince Carles in the yeere 1626. which is now 15. yeeres agoe came forth the 10th Edition of it wee have heard it highly commended by King Iames and that it commended the author of the dedication to a Bishoprick The author of this treatise is large upon the Sabbath and concurres with us in every particular wherein wee are by the Prefacer to this translation opposed Amongst other particulars this is one that hee interpreteth the fourth Commandement as Zanchy doth saying The Commandement doth not say Remember to keepe holy the seventh day next following the sixt day of the Creation or this or that seventh day but indefinitely Remember that thou keepe holy a Sabbath day and that Our Lord Iesus having authority as Lord over the Sabbath had likewise far greater reason to translate the Sabbath day from the Iewish seventh unto the seventh day whereon Christians doe keepe their Sabbath which also hee proves by diverse reasons And the booke of Homilies whereunto all our Ministers are required to subscribe professeth that wee Christians are still bound to the observation of the Sabbath and that the Sunday is now our Sabbath So then as the Jewes were tied to the observation of the Sabbath on the day prescribed too them so are wee Christians tied to the observation of the Sabbath too but on the day prescribed unto us should wee observe the same day with the Jewes wee should fall justly under Austins censure that every such one carnaliter sapit And the same Austin professeth that Doctores Ecclesiae decreverunt omnem gloriam Iudaici Sabbati in illam transferre August de Tem. Ser. 251. The Doctors of the Church have decreed to transferre all the glory of the Jewes Sabbath unto the Lords Day So that the censure following in these words They therefore are but idly busied who would so farre enlarge the Sabbath or seventh day in this commandement as to include the Lords Day in it must light not upon us onely but upon other greater Divines yea and upon the Church of England also but our comfort is that wee finde it very weakly grounded As for the institution of the Lords Day I never reade nor heard any that grounded it upon the fourth Commandement otherwise then by proportion That Commandement containes two things 1. the sanctification of the Sabbath 2. a designing of the time when both as touching the proportion of time to wit of one day in seven and as touching the particularity of the day under the forementioned proportion For in commanding a seventh it commands one day in seven the former inferring the latter as well as it doth inferre the setting of some time in generall a part for Gods service which not one that I know denies to bee the substance of this commandement Now as the Lord designed what should bee their Sabbath day unto the Jewes so hath hee designed what shall bee the Sabbath day to us Christians This designation made to us we do not derive from the fourth commandement but this day being by the word of God designed unto us still holding up the same proportion of time the rest of this day and the sanctification thereof this and this alone doe we derive from the fourth commandement and also that undoubtedly we Christians ought not to allow unto God a worse proportion of time for his Service then did the Jewes and the proportion is apparant betweene the Lord the creators rest and the Lord the redeemers rest And our rest on the day of our Lord the creators rest being abolished as a type of Christs rest in the grave what is more convenient to come in the place thereof then our rest on that day which is the Lord our redeemers rest As touching the passage here alleaged out of Calvin I am sorry to observe the common errour of others committed here also by dismembring Calvins sentence leaving out one halfe of it making him to deliver that absolutely which hee utters onely conditionally And the other halfe of the first sentence here mentioned doth manifest as much namely that Calvin speakes only against them who think themselves obliged to the observation of one day in 7. for some mysterious significations sake and accordingly Wallaeus sheweth that he opposeth none but Papists whose course is to observe festivall dayes for some mystery sake whereof hee gives good evidence by a passage which he allegeth out of Bellarmine all which I have formerly represented more at large in my answer to the Preface Sect. 4. I come to the fourth Section of the Author That some doe urge the words of this Commandement so farre till they draw blood insteed of comfort are but words nothing of this kind hath beene hitherto made good so much as in the least colour of probabilitie And who upon due observing of the fourth commandement may not well be brought to admire the wisedome of God that as hee hath placed it in the morall law which concerneth all times and persons so he hath ordered it after such a manner that howsoever the day should be altered yet the proportion of time still to be kept and a Sabbath still to bee of force whether on the seventh day which was the Sabbath day unto the Jewes or the Lords day which should be our Christian Sabbath thereon to rest unto God and to sanctifie that day unto his service we make no doubt but the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath and so hath power to change it and none hath power to change it but hee that is Lord of it It is true this was one argument amongst many which the Author of the Practice of Pietie useth to prove that the fourth commandement stands still in force because our Saviour professeth that He came not to
from the fourth commandement they may make bold to conclude that it ought to be sanctified And this Zanchy himselfe justifies in the place quoted Chap. 19 as before hath beene shewed And our booke of homilies expresly tell us that now Sunday is become our Sabbath But we keepe not the seventh day the rest on that day being ceremoniall and prefiguring the rest of Christ that day in his grave And as for the authority whereby wee have substituted the Lords Day in the place of the seventh we answer that we are not they that have substituted but the Apostles have substituted it unto our hands God having marked out that day unto them by a worke nothing inferior to the worke of Creation to wit the worke of Christs Resurrection such a worke as brings with it a new Creation and therewithall a new Sabbath as Doctor Andrewes observes out of the ancients and delivered as much in the Starre Chamber And whereas under the Law the Jewish Sabbath was called the Lords Day Now under the Gospell the first day of the weeke is called the Lords Day in the language of the holy Ghost in the new Testament And whereas our Saviour gives us plainly to understand that wee are to have a Sabbath under the Gospell Math. 24.20 as the aforementioned Doctor Andrewes doth observe in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine In common reason and in the conscience of a Christian what day ought to be this our Sabbath rather then the Lords Day so called in the language of the holy Ghost especially considering that not that day of the yeere but that day of the weeke is called the Lords Day as by most generall acknowledgement of all the ancients hath beene supposed And to urge one place more out of the old Testament then here is in a violent manner obtruded upon us Psal 118 14. This is the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it is evidently spoken of that day wherein the stone which the builders refused was made the head of the corner Now by that stone the holy Ghost chiefely understands the Lord Christ Mat. 21.42 Marc. 12.10 Luc. 20.17 Acts 4.11 1 Pet 2.7 and when was hee made the head of the corner Sect. 5. but in the day of his Resurrection Rom. 1.4 the Apostle professing that He was declared mightily to be the Sonne of God touching the spirit of sanctification by the Resurrection from the dead And under what stile did they reject him and condemne him as a blasphemer but for making himselfe the Son of God As for the rigorous observation of the rest prescribed unto the Jewes as from kindling of fire and dressing of meate some qualifie that rigour conceaving that kindling of fire was forbidden onely for the works to be done about making the Tabernacle This being delivered as a preface Exod. 35.2 when the free will offerings were now to be receaved for the promoting of the workemanship of that which formerly was commanded And that dressing of meate was not forbidden them no not in the gathering of Manna as some thinke if then yet not as a generall course to be observed for ever And as touching the Table that Nehemiah kept thus we reade Moreover there were at my Table Nehem. 5.17.18 an 150. of the Iewes and rulers which came unto us from among the Heathen that are about us And there was prepared daily an Oxe and six chosen Sheepe and Birds were prepared for me and hee was so farre from consciousnesse of profaning the Lords Sabbath herein that hee concludes thus Remember me O my God in goodnesse according to all that I have done for this people But suppose they were tied so strictly to such a rest as from workes not servile onely in seeking againe as Zanchy instanceth the condition of a worke servile but even from such as ten led to the refreshing of their natures yet the reason hereof depended upon the mysterious signification of this rest as formerly I have represented out of Lyra from which ceremoniality wee are absolved and consequently freed from that rigorous rest depending thereupon and rest onely from works so farre forth as they are avocations from Sacred Studies and meditations as Calvin expresseth it and this wee accompt a morall rest distinguished from ceremoniall And whereas the Doctor tells us that such a like distinction is infirme being content to say nothing to confirme it save that the Text as hee saith affords it not I had thought the very light of nature had beene sufficient to embolden us to conclude Sect. 6. that where the sanctification of the day is commanded therewithall is commanded abstinence from all such things as would hinder the sanctification of it And as for the text it selfe it is apparent that neither the kindling of the fire nor dressing of meate is particularly forbidden in the fourth Commandement Neither doth hee so much as obtrude upon his adversaries that they derive the sanctification of their christian Sabbath from ought in the old Testament save from Gen. 2.3 and from the fourth Commandement In neither of which doth he deale fairely but is content to confound things that differ as if in this particular he affected to fish in troubled waters and we have better evidence and indeed it is our only evidence therence out of the old Testament for the festivity of the Lords day then he is willing to take notice of namely out of the Psal 118.24 Neither is it possible he should be ignorant thereof howsoever hee doth dissemble his knowledge of it Yet I hope it is enough for us to finde evidence for it in the Sunshine of the Gospell and indeed here alone we have the originall observation of it though that it should be observed is as evidently prophecied in the old Testament as that Christ is the stone which was first refused of the builders and after made the head of the corner adding only this unto it that the day wherein the Lord did this and made so glorious a worke marvellous in the eyes of men was the day of the resurrection which I suppose no intelligent Christian will deny I come unto the 6. Section 6 Who they be that make their boast that they have found the institution of the Lords day in the new Testament expressely J willingly professe I know not neither doe I thinke the Doctor knowes It is true our Saviour oftentimes disputed with the Pharisees about their superstitious observation of the Sabbath day which at length degenerated into voluptuous living on that day in so much that Austin tells the Jewes plainly It is better to goe to plough then to dance but if hereupon you aske where is any the least suspicion of the abrogating of it I answer every one knowes The time was not yet come for the abrogating of it Nay he discourseth so as if 40. yeares after his death the observation of the Sabbath should continue Sect. 4. as when he
exhorts them at such a time to pray that their flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day Matth. 24.20 what will you conclude herence therefore the observation of the Jewish Sabbath was still to continue among Christians if you doe who shall more deservedly be obnoxious to the censure of Judaisme you or wee yet when he tells them that the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath how few interpreters writing hereupon doe not take notice of his power to abrogat it But is it not enough that Paul cryeth downe the ceremonies of the Jewes and in speciall their holy dayes and particularly Sabbaths to wit so far forth as they are found to be shadowes the body whereof was Christ such was the rest on the seventh day as prefiguring Christs rest in the grave But no sober man I trow will herence conclude that herewithall hee cryeth downe the setting apart of any time for Gods service that having no colour of ceremony or rest from such workes as hinder us in the service of God this being as little ceremoniall as the former I make bold to goe one step farther and conclude by the same reason that neither doth he cry downe the proportion of time to wit of one day in seven to be set a part for the exercises of piety because in this particular there is no more ceremonialitie to be found then in any one of the former But to proceed what indifferent man would once expect that in our Saviours disputations with the Pharisees about the Sabbath mention should bee made of the Lords day instituted in the place thereof It is enough wee find it instituted after our Saviours resurrection and sufficient I trowe it is to prove that it was instituted and that in the best manner namely by establishing it de facto in practise amongst the Churches I say this is sufficiently proved by the observation of it which undoubtedly neither was nor could be by chance A Sowe mufling in the earth may make something like the letter A. but not Ennius his Andromacha saith Cicero In like sort the concurrence of the Churches in the observation hereof from the Apostles and continuance therein unto this day could not be by chance but by order and that from the Apostles When you aske Did not the Apostles keepe the Iewish Sabbath I answer I doe not finde they did yet I finde revelations were made unto them of what was to be done by degrees Peter was challenged Acts 11. by the rest of the Apostles for preaching the Gospell unto the Gentiles They tooke indeed advantage of the Jewes Sabbath to preach the Gospell unto them congregated together Act. 13. so did they to the same end take the oppotunity of the feast of Pentecost Acts 18.21 I grant the Sabbath day was observed together with the Lords day by some Christians Baronius imputes it to the Orientales and gives the reason why formerly represented If any man inferre herehence that the celebration of the Lords day is grounded upon the constitution of the Church onely let him make it good for there is no reason that words should carry it much lesse the voyce of one Papist who here is quoted I am sure Dominicus Bannes and Sixtus Senensis are of another opinion formerly produced and hereafter follow many Canonists that maintaine the contrary by the relation of Azorius and one of them Sylvester by name professeth that it is Communis opinio that it is of Divine authoritie If Brentius thinkes otherwise yet Gerardus refuseth to tread in his steps though both are Lutherans And if the Remonstrants concurre with Brentius it is nothing strange they are so neer a kin to the Socinians and Anabaptists who renounce altogether the observation of the Lords day I have formerly reckoned up and produced no lesse then eleven of our Protestant Divines maintaining the ordinance thereof to be Divine and Apostolicall Besides the Ancients who are many and they expresse for the same and not one that I know avouched to the contrary Precept indeed we have not for this in the new Testament but that which is better then a precept For had the Apostles commanded it and the Churches not practised it their commandement had beene obnoxious to various interpretations but they tooke order to establish it as appeares de facto And D. Lake tels us that where divine precept is wanting practise guides the Church and that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and the worke of redemption is nothing inferiour to the worke of creation and I appeale to every Christian conscience Sect. 6. whether upon suspition that we Christians must have a Sabbath to observe as the Jewes had for which we have the expresse words of our Saviour Matth. 24.20 D. Andrewes concurring with us in this and that this Sabbath must be some one day in the weeke which from the ordinance of God immediately from the creation that God himselfe hath declared unto us as Chrysostome observeth and reason concludeth as much for this and that from consideration of the proportion of time which the Lord required of the Jewes under the law for undoubtedly we should sinne if we should allow God a worse proportion under the Gospell and it is evident that no ceremoniality can be found in the sanctification of one day in seven or in the rest of one day in seven I say let every one judge whether in Christian reason any day in the weeke be to be preferred for this before the Lords day that being the day of Christs resurrection the day wherein The Stone which the Builders refused was made the head of the corner and this day not of the yeere but of the weeke being in Scripture-phrase called the Lords day like as the Jewish Sabbath was formerly called the Lords holy day Es 58. Adde unto this that D. Prideaux here justifieth their observation who maintaine the celebration of the Lords day to be by authority divine consisting in these particulars 1. That it seemed a dangerous thing to the whole Fabricke of religion should humane ordinances limit the necessity of Gods worship Or that the Church should not assemble but at the pleasure of the Clergie and they perhaps not well at one among themselves For what would men busied about their Farms their yokes of Oxen and domesticke troubles ' as the invited guests in the holy Gospell would they not easily set at naught an humane ordinance would not prophane men easily dispense with their absenting themselves from prayers and preaching and give themselves free leave of doing or neglecting any thing were there not something found in Scripture which more then any humane ordinance or institution should binde the conscience yet it is easie to conjecture what would be answered to all this for excommunication upon disobedience to the Church may be a bond strong enough to oblige them hereunto Or if men be not so sensible hereof yet the lawes of the land and
notion to be a like in both And hereupon it is most ingenuously acknowledged that The alteration of the name doth intimate that the Sabbath was also altered in relation to Gods worship but the appointment of the tim c. wherein endeth this Section And the next begins with this question what then shall we affirme that the Lords day is founded on divine authority and the answer is For my part without prejudice to any mans opinion I assent unto it how ever the arguments like me not whereby it is supported well therefore let us lovingly and candidly as it becomes the gates of the muses conferre about these arguments First this inference offends me That in the cradle of the world God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it therefore all men are bound to sanctifie it by the Law of Nature since I both doubt whether the Patriarches did observe it before Moses time and have learnt also that the Law of nature is immutable Doctor Andrewes in his patterne of Catecheticall Doctrine writes saying This is a principle that the Decalogue is the Law of nature revived and the law of nature is the Image of God But let us consider the argument It is one thing to except against the antecedent another to except against the inference made herence As touching the Antecedent it is one thing what God hath ordained and may be another thing what the Patriarches observed we say God ordained it in as much as hee commanded it in these words Therefore God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it that is commanded man to sanctifie it as hath beene proved and is also confessed only to helpe themselves as it were at a dead lift they say those words in Genesis are uttered by way of anticipation as much as to say because God rested on that day therefore God commanded man to rest on the same day and sanctifie it but when 2500. yeeres after for the unreasonablenesse of which interpretation and the incongruitie thereof unto the same words repeated in the fourth commandement I appeale to that which I have formerly discoursed hereupon Now if God from the beginning ordained the seventh day to be kept holy wee leave it to every sober conscience to judge whether it be not most likely that both Adam and the holy Patriarches observed it for we insist not in this argument upon humane observation but meerely upon Divine institution And though God did from the beginning command it yet it followeth not that all men are bound to sanctifie that day unlesse they have some evidence of Gods command wherewith we are made acquainted by the Scriptures If the law of nature be meant a light of nature convincing us we doe not infer herence or at all maintaine nor any that I know that in this sense all or any are bound to keep the seventh or a seventh day holy but onely by vertue of Gods command Yet this wee professe that seeing it is generally confessed that by the very light of nature some time is to be set apart for Gods service Wee cannot devise in reason any better course then to set one day in seaven apart for this considering the first division of dayes is into weekes and if a seventh part of our time be in reason to be consecrated unto God wee thinke it more convenient to set one intire day in seven apart for this then the seventh part of every day because the other businesses of every day are apt to cause distraction from the Lords service And as I have but erst discoursed it is more fit the Master should appoint unto the servant what proportion of service hee shall performe unto him then that this should be left to the discretion or liberty of the servant 1. both the honour of the Master requiring this 2. and the good of the servant for hereby hee shall be assured of the better acceptance at the hands of his master And so for the particular day it is fit the Master should marke out that also unto him by some prerogative set upon the day as hee did the seventh day by finishing the worke of Creation and by his rest thereon from his workes to call man to an holy rest from his so to be more free for the service of his Creator In which cases both touching the proportion of the time and particularity of the day the Law being made it shall continue immutable and unalterable by the will of the Creature but mutable and alterable according to the will of the Creator so that things being well distinguished and rightly considered and stated I see no bug beare of inconvenience in all this Neyther doe I see any reason why the spending of one day in Gods holy worship as a morall and perpetuall duty should seeme distastfull to any Since it is apparant that God commanded it unto his people of the Jewes and for 1600 yeares it hath beene continually observed by Christian Churches unto this day and I make no doubt but it shall hold till Christs comming though from the beginning of the World it was never found to be so hotly opposed as at this day And why should any man stick in acknowledging it to be morall when never any man busied himselfe to finde out any ceremoniality in reference to the proportion of one day in seven Neither doe I thinke ever any man called it judiciall but Azorius professeth it to be rationi maxime consentancum most agreeable to reason and no man that I know hath at any time set himselfe to devise a proportion of time to be spent in Gods service more agreeable to reason then this And as for the third offence taken for I know not any that give it The fourth Commandement is brought by none that I know to prove that the Lords Day is now become our Christian Sabbath but supposing it to be our Sabbath as the booke of Homilies sayth it is and our Saviour signified that Christians should have their Sabbath as well as the Jewes had theirs Math. 24 20. wee produce the fourth Commandement to prove that wee ought to sanctifie it and that we may the better sanctifie it to rest from all workes that hinder the sanctification thereof And indeed the Commandedement is so drawen as to command one day in seaven to be observed and whatsoever is that seventh prescribed by lawfull authority to sanctifie it and abstaine from all works whereby the hallowing of it is disturbed and all this we take to be morall namely the worshipping of God in a certaine proportion of time prescribed by him and to that purpose to rest from workes not for any mysterious signification sake as did the Jewes wee thinke the practise of the Church in the Apostles dayes is sufficient to inferre the apostolicall and divine institution thereof from hence Athanasius Cyrill Austin and the Fathers generally for I know not one alleaged to the contrary so take it And the Lords Day hath no other notion in Scripture
THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH DEFENDED Against a Crying Evil in these Times of the Antisabitarians of our Age Wherein is shewed that the Morality of the fourth Commandement is still in force to bind Christians unto the Sanctification of the Sabbath Day Written by that learned Assertor of the Truth William Twisse D. D. late Prolocutor to the Assembly of Divines Exod. 20 8. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy Matth. 5.17 Think not I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill Verse 18. For verily I say unto you till Heaven and Earth passe one jot or one title shall in no wise passe from the Law till all be fulfilled Verse 19. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandements and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven LONDON Printed for Thomas Pierrepont and are to be sold at the signe of the Sun in Pauls Church-yard 1652. AVANCEZ ROWLAND HILL A.M. The Contents of the chiefe matters handled herein IN the answer to the Prefacer Section 1. 1. The ancients are alleadged in vaine to oppose the Institution of the Sabbath as from the beginning Section 2. 2. The untruth of the Praefacers legends concerning Peter Bruis Fulco and Eustathius and others discovered Section 3. 3. Calvin abused by the Prefacer and misconstrued Section 3. 2. What credite Barclay deserves relating a consultation of Calvin about transferring the Sabbath to the Thursday Section 3. 3. Of the force of Apostolicall example Section 4. 4. The vanity of the Prefacers pretence in saying Catarinus opposed Tostatus with ill successe while he maintained the Institution of the Sabbath from the Creation It is made apparant that his successe was far beyond that of Tostatus Section 4. 2. Whether Adam fell the first day wherein he was created 1. Pererius his arguments for the negative Sect. 4. 2. Doctor Willet his arguments for the affirmative Sect. 4. Section 4. 3. Pererius his reasons against the institution of the Sabbath from the Creation answered Section 4. 4. Two Digressions in answer to Rivetus in two particulars 1. By way of reply upon his answer to Walaeus his arguments justifying the morality of one day in seven 2. To his arguments opposing the morality of one day in seven to be consecrated to the Lord. Section 5. Pa. 78. 5. A consideration of Walaeus his discourse in answer to those who conceave the institution of the Lords Day to have beene ordered by Christ himselfe Section 5. Pa. 70. 2. An examination of that phrase of some of our Divines affirming the ancients to have changed the Iewes Sabbath unto the Lords Day for a probable cause wherein it is shewed that the cause hereof was more then probable Section 6. 6. An examination of Chemnitius his discourse concerning the authority of the Lords Day Section 6. 2. A reply upon Doctor Rivets answer to Master Perkins his arguments standing for the Divine authority of the Lords Day 3. That the Lords Day and the Lords Supper are so called in the same notion 1. affirmed by Doctor Andrewes Perkins Thysius 2. justified by good reason Section 7. 7. A briefe of the arguments on each side for every point 1. As touching the originall institution of the Sabbath 2. As touching the Morality of one day in seven to be consecrated to Gods solemne worship 3. As touching the authority of the celebration of the Lords Day and the immutability thereof 8. The Prefacer and M. Rogers opposing D. Bownde are shewed in every particular to oppose D. Andrewes IN the consideration of D. Prideaux his Lecture Section 2. 1. How far light of nature doth direct as touching the time which ought to be set apart for Gods solemne service Section 2. 6. 2 Reasons why the Creator should prescribe the proportion of time to be consecrated unto himselfe Section 2. 6. 3. How far light of nature doth direct as touching the particularity of the day under the proportion of one in seven Sect. the same Section 3. 4. That Enosh with his holy company apparting themselves from others had a set time for divine worship Section 5. 5. That it becomes not us to affect liberty to designe the day for the Sabbath Section 6. 6 The danger of leaving it to man to make choyse of the day Section 7. 7. That the celebration of the Lords Day is of divine institution and how far justified by the old Testament and particularly by the fourth Commandement Section 8. 8. That it is nothing strange the Lords Day should be called by the name of the sabbath Section 8. 2. Sensuall pleasures are cleanly caried under the title of recreation The Preface I Have now a long time taken notice of much difference and contention about the morality of the fourth Commandement but I never gave my selfe to looke into the bottome of it till now I ever conceived it for the substance to be Morall otherwise what should it make among the ten Commandements which all account the Law morall in distinction both from the law judiciall and the law ceremoniall given by Moses unto the Jewes These ten Commandements the Lordspake from the top of mount Sina in the hearing of all the people and by way of preparation to so notable a service as to meet with God and to heare him speake unto them Exod. 19.10 two dayes were given them to sanctifie themselves and to wash their cloathes 11. that they might be ready on the third day for the third day the Lord would come downe on mount Sina And so it came to passe For when Moses brought forth the people out of the Campe to meet with God 17. and they stood at the nether part of the Mount 18. Mount Sina was altogether on a smoake because the Lord descended upon it in fire and the smoake thereof ascended as the smoake of a furnace and the whole mount quaked greatly And all the people saw the thundrings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet Exod. 20.18 and the mountaine smoaking and when the people saw it they removed and stood a farre off In such heavenly state was this Law delivered and remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy amongst the rest without all example of the like in all the generations that went before And the Lord thought it fit to mind them hereof by his servant Moses Deut. 4.32 Aske now of the dayes that are past which were before thee since the day that God created man upon the earth and aske from the one side of heaven unto the other whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is or hath been heard like it Did ever people heare the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire 33. as thou hast heard and live Out of heaven he made thee to heare his voice 36. that he might instruct thee and upon the earth he shewed
thee his great fire and thou heardst his words out of the midst of the fire And because he loved thy Fathers therefore he chose their seed after them And in his last blessing upon the people when now he was going out of the world Moses as a King putteth them in mind of this saying Deut. 33.2 3 4 5. The Lord came from Sinai and rose up from Seir unto them he shined forth from mount Paran and he came with ten thousands of Saints from his right hand went a fiery law for them Yea he loved the people all his Saints are in thy hands and they sate downe at thy feet every one shall receive of thy words Moses commanded a Law even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. And he was King in Jeshurun when the heads of the people and the Tribes of Israel were gathered together It is true there is an hole pickt in the fourth Commandement concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath as if that among all the rest were not morall but ceremoniall Yet this honour it hath from God that immediatly after the Creation the Lord resting on the seventh day from his works therefore he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2.3 And therefore Doctor Andrewes ere he died Bishop of Winchester in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine I commonly cite it under his name because it is commonly received to bee his and as I have heard upon divers good grounds treating upon this Commandement and having proposed this question But is not the Sabbath a Ceremony and so abrogated by Christ Makes answer to it in this manner Doe as Christ did in the cause of divorce look whether it were so from the beginning Now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sinne and so before there needed any Saviour and so before there was any Ceremony or figure of a Saviour And if they say it prefigured the rest that we shall have from our sinnes in Christ we grant it and therefore the day is changed but no ceremony proved And yet we are not ignorant how Papists have practised to raze the second commandement also out of the Law given on mount Sina as if that also were out of date being as they conceive but of a positive nature at first so little evidence doe they finde for it by the light of Nature and now the world is growne so wise that they know how to worship God by Images without committing any idolatry at all though this mystery of religious state is not thought fit to be communicated unto the vulgar But doe we not all acknowledge the light of Nature to be much corrupted since the fall of Adam how much more our judgement of morall things wherein Aristotle confesseth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. 1. c. 3. demonstration is not to be expected but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perswasion And if way be given to mens wanton wils for the gratifying of corrupt affections more breaches than these are like to be made in the Decalogue I have heard that Cardinall Cusanus undertooke to justifie the sin of Sodome Sure I am amongst the Lacedemonians wives were common And Brennus that Ancient Invader of other Nations made profession that he knew no other Law of Nature but this that The weaker should be in subjection to the stronger like as King Pyrrhus in his death-bed being demanded who should succeed him in the Kingdom made answer even He whose sword is the longest Carneades I thinke was the man who having on a day made a singular speech in commendation of Justice afterwards discoursed as eloquently to the contrary shewing that there was no justice at all by the law of nature every naturall thing seeking to maintaine it selfe by the destruction of others So the fire maintaines it selfe by the combustion of each combustible thing whereunto it approacheth and the water overflowes all naturally and beats downe all dammes it can to make roome for it selfe And the greatest Beasts maintain themselves by praying on those that have no power to resist them The more cause have wee to blesse God for giving us the Law Morall in writing which grew so miserably defaced in the hearts of men And that herein the sanctifying of the Sabbath is mentioned among the rest this hath ever satisfied mee and assured that the substance thereof is Morall and that accordingly wee ought to inure our selves to the sanctification of the Sabbath though naturally we find in our selves no greater reluctation to any Commandement than to this Pardon me if I judge of others by my selfe in this particular Nay upon this very consideration have we not the more cause to strive against this intestine corruption of ours His Majesty is much delighted in hunting it is a recreation mixt with manly exercise well becomming a King but I heare he never useth to hunt on the Lords day And so much the rather should the Lords Sabbaths be deare unto us because the goodnesse and mercy of God appeares no where more than in giving us his Sabbaths calling upon us thereby to rest from the world unto him and God knowes a Christian soule finds no rest any where but in him and to walke with him in holy meditation as he is pleased to walk in the midst of us as a Hos 11.9 the Holy One of Israel so to draw us away from worldly cares and pleasures to the entertaining of heavenly and holy cares to enrich our selves with the knowledge of God and to recreate our soules in the Lord as hee solaceth himselfe in us according to that Prov. 8.31 Hee tooke his solace in the compasse of the earth and his delight was in the children of men On the Lords day it is that in speciall sort we Christians take hold of that holy Cōmunion which God in great mercy in his Son Jesus Christ vouchsafeth unto us with himselfe speaking unto us as from heaven in his holy Word and giving us liberty to speak unto him The Lord pitcheth his Tabernacle amongst us here on earth and we are as it were taken up into the mount of God there to be transfigured before him When the Lord appeared unto Jacob in a vision by night when he fled from his brother Esau and he saw a ladder erected between heaven and earth and the Lord on the top of it the Angels ascending and descending by it when he awoke How dreadfull saith he is this place Gen. 28.16 17. The Lord was here and I was not a ware surely it is no other than the house of God and the gate of heaven And are not our Temples the houses of God are they not the very gates of heaven In our solemne assemblies is not a ladder erected betweene earth and heaven is not the Lord on the top of it Deut. 33.3 and are not we humbled at his feet to heare his Word The gracious instructions which we receive from him are they
not as so many Angels descending unto us the gracious motions that arise in our hearts upon meditation of his Word of thankesgiving to him of rejoycing in him yea of sorrowing for our sins are they not as so many Angels ascending to him Our teares have a double motion one naturall downwards another spiritual upwards for the Lord puts them into his bottels the hairs of our head are numbred how much more the sighes of our heart and groanes of our spirit And have we not great cause to inure our selves betimes thus to sabbatize with God as he sabbatizeth with us that we may be the fitter to keepe our eternall Sabbath with him for so is our eternall happinesse represented unto us in the enjoying of him for ever Es 66.23 and being filled with his glory which Austin calls a De civit Dei lib. 22. c. 30. Sabbatum maximum our greatest Sabbath and b Quaest supra Exo. quaest 173. 1 Cor. 15.24.28 Plenitudo Sabbati and to that purpose casts his eye upon that Sabbatum Sabbatorum Sabbath of Sabbaths Revel 25. For when Christ hath put downe all rule and all authority and power then shall he deliver up the Kingdome to God even the Father and God shall be all in all Yet I willingly confesse that in my observation two things there are which seeme to be of great moment in opposition to the morality of the fourth Commandement 1. The change of the day 2. The generall opinion of the Fathers pronouncing in an indefinit manner the fourth Commandement to be ceremoniall Yet notwithstanding the registring of it in the Decalogue which is generally accompted the Law morall I say this consideration hath even prevailed more with mee to accompt the substance thereof morall Neverthelesse for the honour I owe and respect I beare to Antiquity I have endevoured to understand the Antients aright and to enquire in what respect they accompted it ceremoniall For to my understanding the sanctification of the rest or the service of the day especially unto us Christians is meerely morall But as concerning the rest it selfe it may be some ceremoniality may be found therein especially considered in conjunction with the time appointed for the worship and service of God And herein I thanke God I have found good satisfaction unto my selfe at last how I shall satisfie others I know not And when sometimes I had waded thorow the Epistle to the Romans unto the fourteenth Chapter there occasion was given me to consider further of this controversie so farre as a few dayes would give libertie to provide my next Sermon and therein I made use of Hospinian and of Pererius and no more as I remember but in Pererius I came acquainted with Tostatus his Arguments directed against the ancient institution of the Sabbath from the Creation which till then I imagined had been generally received without contradiction according to that which the story of Genesis at first sight seemes to commend unto us And by this occasion my mind working hereupon in my meditations I thought fit for opening a way to the better clearing of the truth to distinguish three things in subordination the latter to the former 1. The first was a time in generall to be set apart for Gods service 2. The second was the proportion of this time 3. The third the particularity of the day according to the specified proportion 1. The first seemed to me of necessary duty by the very light of nature to as many as know God and acknowledge him to be their Creator and this I tooke and doe take to be the highest degree of morality in this precept and herein hitherto I have found no opposition 2. As touching the second by light of nature we are somewhat to seeke as whether one day in a weeke or more or one day in a month or more or one day in a yeare or more ought to be set apart for the solemne worship and service of God So that herein it is fit we should expect direction from God the Lord of the Sabbath 1. Because the service of the day is his and it seemes fit he should cut out what proportion of time he thinkes convenient 2. For the maintenance of uniformitie therein and lest otherwise there might be as many divisions hereabouts as there are Churches in the world and contentions also consequently each standing for their owne election For reason of a conjecturall nature is very various and therein commonly affection beares the greatest sway and drawes the judgement to comply with it But when God hath determined a certaine proportion of time it may be we shall find great congruitie therein even to naturall reason and farre more than in any other D. Field as Master Broad reports professeth that to one who knowes the story of the Creation it is evident by light of nature that one day in seven is to be consecrated to Gods service Part. 2. lib. 1. cap. 2. And Azorius the Jesuit in his morall Institutions acknowledgeth that It is most agreeable to reason that after six work dayes one day should be consecrated to divine worship The least division of dayes is into a weeke the next greater division is into a month the next into a yeare Now by light of nature it seemes farre more reasonable that one day in seven should be imployed in Gods service than one day in a moneth And if a seventh part of our time be to be consecrated unto God better a seventh day than a seventh part of every day because the worldly occupations of each of those dayes must needs cause miserable distraction Thus reason may discourse in probable manner when God hath gone before us to open a way unto us Certainly when God hath once determined the proportion of time it is so farre from being accounted morall as perpetuall and still to hold untill God himselfe shall alter it 3. As for the particularity of the day according to the forenamed proportion therein we should be farre more to seeke were wee left unto our selves time consisting in a continuall flux and succession one part afore and another after As namely supposing one day in seven is to be consecrated to Gods service yet wee shall still be to seeke which day of the seven is to be set apart for an holy use And no marvell for in it selfe it is nothing materiall For a proportion of service being required within a certaine compasse so it be done within that compasse every Master rests satisfied with his servants worke But as for difference in the proportion every one accounts that a matter of great moment God himselfe acknowledgeth this therefore to whom he gives but little at their hands he expects but little to whom hee gives much of them he expects much as our Saviour teacheth And Saint John exhorts Christians so to carry themselves in the Lords service that they may receive a full reward 2 Iohn 8 Yet both for our assurance that
our service shall be acceptable with God for of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin we reade that Hee offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month even in the month which he had devised of his owne heart which latter clause undoubtedly is added by way of exprobration as also to prevent divisions by reason of different opinions thereabouts and as different courses therin it is fit that herein we should wait for the Lords direction and designation of the particular day And even this also was so ordered by God himselfe and that in great congruitie as appeares to as many as are acquainted with the story of the Creation For the Lord having dispatched all his workes in six dayes and resting on the seventh commanded man to imitate him For in this respect it was that at the first the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and some thousand of yeares after gives this reason why after six dayes of labour the seventh being the Sabbath of the Lord our God no manner of worke should be done therein which being once thus ordered by the Lord of the Sabbath it must be in force of perpetuall observation as a requisite determination of the morality of this Law and not of an alterable nature save only by the same authority whereby it was ordained Now to my understanding by the fourth Commandement it is cleare First that God commanded some time to bee set apart and sanctified unto his service Secondly that the proportion of this time he hath defined to be one day in seven Thirdly that the particular day under this proportion was designed to be the seventh and that unto the Iews in correspondencie to the seventh day from the first creation whereon God commanded them to rest from all their workes like as on that day the Lord rested from his works And I thinke there is no question amongst Christians but that all this ought to be religiously observed by the people of God untill the Lord himselfe manifest his pleasure for alteration and no farther in any particular than God shall manifest his pleasure for alteration As for example First for the time then son the rest lastly for the service of the day it selfe First If God hath not manifested his will for any alteration of setting apart some time for divine service we must still continue to set some time apart for divine service Likewise if God hath not manifested his pleasure to have the proportion of time altered which hath bin originally allotted unto his service we must not presume to allow a lesse proportion of time for his service than hath been formerly prescribed by him Only both Gomarus and Rivet concur in this that we may allow more and that in reason it is fit now under the Gospell to allow more time for Gods service rather than lesse in comparison to that which he would have allowed him under the Law And as for the particularity of the day if God hath manifested his pleasure to have it altered it must be altered as in case it appeare to have been ceremoniall in respect of the rest commanded thereon and another in the seven substituted in the place thereof and that according to Gods direction and not otherwise Secondly so as touching the rest of the day commanded upon Mount Sina unto the Jewes not so unto Adam upon the Creation but onely wee reade that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it which sanctification yet on mans part drawes a rest with it if there be found a just distinction betweene a rest morall so far forth as the sanctification of the day requireth and a rest ceremonial of a more rigorous nature and that prefiguring some thing in Christ it will follow herehence that the rest morall still continueth together with the sanctification of the day as much as ever and that the rigorous rest must fall and be abolished Thirdly so in the last place as touching the service of the day whatsoever was prescribed unto the Jewes thereon as ceremoniall is at end as namely the Sabbath sacrifice which doubled the daily sacrifice Only the publique ministery of the Word and Prayer as morall still continueth together with our Sacramentall ceremonies which Christ hath given unto his Church Baptisme and the Lords Supper and therefore the Lords day was called by the Ancients the day of light in reference unto Baptisme Baptisme being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illumination the first worke of grace and the day of Bread in reference to the Lords Supper Now all this I hope to make appeare before I give over this taske which I have taken in hand And I was the more confirmed in my meditations when I heard by one of my Auditors a Divine that in this doctrine of mine concerning the Sabbath as touching the substance of that which was delivered by me I nothing differed from the opinion of D. Prideaux whose discourse on that argument at that time I had not been acquainted with But since I finde that Sect. 8. of that his Lecture be professeth that the Jewish rest cannot stand with our Christian libertie I say so too and withall endevour to give evidence for the abrogation thereof Further the same Reverend Doctor professeth That we only are so farre to abstaine from worke as it is an impediment to the performance of such duties as are then commanded I am not only of his opinion herein but withall desire no more than this to be granted for the maintenance of the morall rest of the fourth Commandement But I have observed some to deny any thing in the Iewish Sabbath to have been ceremoniall yet will not have that fourth Commandement morall but positive rather as touching both the observation of one day in seven and as touching the particularity of the day And therefore they deny it to be morall because it hath not evidence by light of nature But was it evident to the Jewes by light of nature that the God of their Fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob and that brought them out of the land of Aegypt was the true God of the world and that therefore they ought to have no other gods but him Is it evident by the light of nature that God is not to be worshipped by an Image Or if naturall evidence hereof faile us in this state of corrupt nature wherein we are shall these lawes be denied to be the morall Law of God yet I nothing doubt but the proportion of time allowed for Gods service much more the particularity of the day appointed thereunto is alterable at the pleasure of God And ceremonials I confesse are in such a sense positive or rather more than positive namely such as not only may but must like shadowes fly away when the body of them comes in place And yet I find that Cajetan in this point confounds ceremoniall with positive though I think he would not call it ceremoniall
the sanctification of this day is apparantly commanded in the moral law spoken from Mount Sinai And those Christians who a long time kept this seventh day holy as well as the Lords day had no opinion of any danger at all in this their observation And it stood the ancient Fathers upon to oppose the observation of the law ceremoniall Yet what saith Austin against these heretickes to whom this Author in the first place referreth us All that hee delivers against the Cerinthians in reference to this particular is onely this They say that wee ought to bee circumcised and that other like precepts of the Law are to bee observed I translate it for the benefit of the common people Of the Ebionites thus They observe the carnall commandements of the Law to wit Circumcision of the flesh and the rest from whose burthens wee are freed by the new Testament Of Appollinaris and his sect this way Austin hath just nothing but Danaeus who collects out of other Authors also the hereticall opinions of the Apollinarists in the last place writes thus of them After the last resurrection say they Sabbaths Circumcision Iewish difference of meates and all other legall ceremonies shall have place yea also there shall bee a Temple amongst us And is not this wilde stuffe in reference to the sanctification of the Lords day now in question amongst us Now let the Reader judge with what modesty it is avouched That Hence it was that Irenaeus Justin Martyr Tertullian and Eusebius doe affirme for certaine that never any of the Patriarches before Moses Law did observe the Sabbath D. Prideaux saith not that Hence it was neither hath this Author given the least evidence hereof Sure I am that in those Patriarches dayes Christ was not as yet come in the flesh but rather to come long after their dayes and consequently though it be a dangerous course in these dayes to lay any ground of suspition that Christ is not already come but as yet to come yet this was of no dangerous condition at all in the dayes of the Patriarchs because in their dayes Christ was not come but to come long after D. Prideaux begins with Tertullian by this Author translated thus Let them saith he in a particular Tract against the Jewes assure me if they can that Adam ever kept the Sabbath or Abel when he offered unto God his accepted sacrifice had regard thereof or that Noah kept the same when he was busied in preparing the Arke against the Deluge or finally that Abraham in offering his sonne Isaak or that Melchisedech in execution of his Priest-hood tooke notice of it Now I appeale to every sober mans judgement whether to put the Jewes in those dayes to shew this be to affirme for certaine That never any of the Patriarches before Moses Law did observe the Sabbath It is true indeed we have no particular relation of the observation of the Sabbath in that Booke of Genesis and this Tertullian knew full well and againe it is as true that there is no testimony of ought to the contrary In the Booke of Josuah in like sort there is not any mention of the observation thereof any more than in the Booke of Judges of Ruth of the two Bookes of Samuel but rather something to the contrary to wit in the siege of Iericho and marching round about the walls of Iericho seven dayes together But yet in generall we reade in Genesis that when God had finished all his works in six dayes and rested the seventh he therefore blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and whether this hath not greater evidence that even then God ordered that that day should be sanctified than that the meaning should be that therefore God ordered this two thousand and certaine yeares after I appeale to every Christian to judge betweene us And if God did then order it which could not be otherwise than by command how could Adam be ignorant hereof and if he knew as much how improbable is it that he and his at least Abel and Enosh and his pious posterity should not observe it And if a time had not been set apart even in Adams dayes for divine service how improbable is it that Cain and Abel should concurre at the same time in bringing their offerings unto the Lord and if not at the same time how could Cain discern that Abels offering was respected and accepted of God when his was not Yet for certaine it was observed before Moses Law if by the Law we understand the Law given on mount Sina as appeares manifestly Exod. 16. And withall it is thereby evident that from the beginning of the world untill that time the distinction of the yeare into weekes was observed otherwise it were impossible to know which day was the seventh in correspondencie to the seventh from the Creation save by particular revelation whereof we reade nothing now that being unknowne the reason of sanctifying the seventh day by an holy rest drawne from Gods rest on the seventh that is the last day of the first weeke from the Creation had been utterly void and nothing at all agreeable And this distinction of time into weekes was observed from all Antiquity by the Gentiles as hath been confirmed by Wallaeus and Rivetus with the helpe of Claudius Salmasius that learned Antiquary and likewise that the seventh day was a Festivall even among the Gentiles And albeit divers others of the Ancients are alleaged to the same purpose as affirming that the Patriarches did not observe the Sabbath as namely Eusebius Eccles Hist lib. 1. cap. 4. saying They had no Circumcision of the body nor observation of the Sabbath as we have not And Iustin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew Lib. 4. cap. 30. saying Heretofore there were good men that pleased God though they kept not Sabbathes And Irenaeus in like manner thus Abraham himselfe without Circumcision and observation of the Sabbaths beleeved God and it was imputed unto him for righteousnesse Lid. Orthod lib. 4. cap. 24. and lastly Damascen When there was no Law nor Scripture of divine inspiration nor Sabbath consecrated unto God For as for Bede alleaged by Pererius to that purpose in his Hexameron I find in that place nothing answerable thereunto Now Hospinian is of opinion that these passages of the Ancients are to be understood of the rigorous observation of the Sabbath among the Jewes I adde or in reference to the other Sabbaths commanded in the Law of Moses or lastly in reference to the manner of solemnizing them among the Jewes who we know had a peculiar Sacrifice ordained for the Sabbaths and this I prove by these reasons First they deliver this as a thing well knowne for they take no paines to prove it Now consider what ground could they have for the custome of the Patriarchs before the Flood especially considering that the testimony of Moses Gen. 2.3 is far better evidence for the keeping of a weekly Sabbath in
a morall way only than any they could bring to the contrary Secondly then againe could they have better grounds for the practise of those ancient Patriarchs both before and after the Floud than the Jewes themselves I presume none will be so immodest as to affirme this and if they had any such evidence it stood them upon to produce it especially in dealing against the Jewes Thirdly they deliver this as a thing undeniable by the Jewes themselves with whom they deale in this particular but the Jewes had no such faith as to beleeve that the ancient Patriarchs never observed the weekly Sabbath For none are of this opinion but such as thinke that passage Gen. 2.3 of Gods blessing the seventh day and hallowing it was not delivered of that present time as if then God ordained it should be sanctified but only by way of anticipation for the time to come But this was not the opinion of the Jewes Manasseth Ben Israel a moderne Rabbin in his booke intituled The Reconciler Conciliator according to the argument of that his writing which is to reconcile places of Scripture in shew disagreeing and that upon enquiry into all the Rabbins both ancient and later in his 36. Question upon Exodus writes thus as out of the opinion of the Ancients those words Thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in Egypt observe how he expounds them Ac si diceret cogita in Aegypto ubi serviebas etiam ipso Sabbato per vim te coactum ad labores as if he should say thinke with thy selfe that in Egypt where thou servedst thou wast by force constrained to labour on the very Sabbath Evidently manifesting not out of his owne particular opinion but as out of the generall opinion of their ancient Rabbins that the Sabbath and the observation thereof was a duty in the very dayes of the Patriarchs And in the end concludes thus Igitur Deus benedictus cupiens Sabbatum cujus sanctimoniam tantis documentis approbaverat in aeternum ab omnibus coli decâ—m praeceptis illud inseruit quo scientes praecepta aeterna esse etiam hoc inter ea habendum intelligerent Therefore the blessed God it is fit I should translate it for the benefit of the common people desiring that the Sabbath might bee observed for ever of all whose sanctity by so many documents he had commended placed it in the Dealogue that it made it one of the tenne Commandements to the end that knowing those precepts to bee everlasting they should understand that this Commandement also was to be accomplished amongst them And indeed Tertullian himselfe professeth that the Jewes were of this opinion as Rivetus observes out of his booke against the Jewes thus translated God from the beginning did sanctifie the seventh day resting from all the workes that hee had made and that thereupon Moses said unto the people Remember yee the Sabbath day to sanctifie it And therefore when Mercer saith concerning the meaning of these words Genes 2.3 Hebraei fere referunt in futurum the Jewes for the most part referre it to the time to come he is to be understood of the later Jewes but of this more shall be spoken ere wee part from this section 4 Fourthly not one of the ancient Fathers is alleaged by our adversaries delivering his opinion upon that passage Genes 2.3 to shew what hee conceives to bee the true meaning thereof which yet is the onely ground whereupon our doctrine is built concerning the originall institution of the Sabbath and seeing it contains a meaning at first sight manifestly contradictious to that which they affirne as wee interpret it of the weekely Sabbath without reference unto the Jewish manner of observing it therefore in this case it stood them upon to take notice of that place and by some faire interpretation vindicate themselves from suspition of contradicting the expresse Word of God 5 Tertullian himselfe justifies our doctrine namely that God from the beginning sanctified the seventh day as Rivetus shewes out of his fourth booke against Marcion cap. 12. where hee sayth Christum ipsum Sabbati diem benedictione Patris à primordio sanctum benefactione sua efficere sanctiorem That Christ himselfe made that day more holy by his well doing on that day which by the benediction of the Father was made holy from the beginning So that Tertullians meaning in the place alleaged to the contrary cannot bee that the ancient Patriarchs simply observed not the weekely Sabbath but onely that they observed it not after that manner the Jewes did and that the like interpretation must bee given of the passages alleaged out of other of the Ancients 6 For further proofe whereof observe that Theodoret albeit on the 20. of Ezekiel hee saith in like manner that God prescribed unto the Jewes the sabbaticall vacations Vt haec civilis administrationis ratio peculiaris à Gentium quidem eos distingueret institutis that this peculiar administration might distinguish them from the customes of the Gentiles yet Wallaeus shewes that the same Theodoret in his questions upon Genesis Dissert de 4. praecep p. 44. doth manifestly declare that even from the beginning of the creation God did ordaine this day to rest and sanctification As who having created the creatures in six dayes by the rest of the seventh day manifested the creation to be perfected like as in seven dayes hee concluded the whole circle of dayes And that by blessing the seventh day and sanctifying it he declared Quod non illum diem inutilem putabat ad creandum sed ad quietem accommodatum statuit The meaning whereof in effect is this that hee did not thinke that day unfit to have any thing created therin but onely it was his pleasure to ordaine it for a day of rest The same Author shewes Chrysostome to bee of the same opinion in his 10. Homily on Genesis whose words in Latine he rendreth thus Iam hinc ab initio doctrinam hanc nobis insinuat Deus erudiens in circulo hebdomedae diem unum integrum segregandum reponendum ad spiritualem operationem Now from the beginning God insinuates this instruction teaching that in the circle of the weeke one entire day is to bee sequestred and imployed on spirituall actions These authorities in my judgement should bee of the greater force for as much as they deliver their opinion by way of interpretation of Gods Word and that according to the plaine literall meaning and that such as whereunto every Christians conscience not fore-stalled with prejudice is prone enough to yeeld by reason of the native evidence of the words For they denote an externall action and transient not an internall and immanent in God all of which kinde are eternall which externall action is the dedication of the day to holy uses which cannot bee imagined to bee done any other way as I should thinke then by commanding it to bee sanctified The same Author shewes Austin to have beene of the same
day And Cyrill in his 12. book on Iohn chap. 58. considering the Lords appearance a second time on the eighth day Thomas then being present and upon consideration finding it to have beene the first day of the weeke concludes thus Iure igitur sanctae Congregationes die octavo in Ecclesiis fiunt By right therefore holy Congregations in the Churches are made on the eighth day meaning thereby the first day of the week that is the Lords day and as hee concludeth thus so undoubtedly his opinion was the Apostles themselves did conclude in like manner Now albeit much had beene effected for the abrogation as well of all superstitious fancies about that day as of the day it selfe that is of the Jewish sabbath by the labours of the Fathers fore-mentioned and particularly of Damascen and venerable Bede among the rest yet there comes in an exception somewhat of the nature of a sixth finger and that is Saint Gregory tells us notwithstanding how some in Rome were so superstitious in this kinde that they would neither work upon the Saturday no nor so much as wash upon the Sunday So little effectuall were the labours of Damascen and venerable Bede that they could not prevent the superstitious fancies of some that lived an hundred yeares before For Gregory by Bellarmines account dyed in the yeare of our Lord 604. and Damascen lived long after the yeare 731. and Bede was living in the yeare 731. as Bellarmine observes out of his fifth booke of Historia Anglicana Who would desire an adversary should betray more weakenesse than this Author but wee see manifestly whither he tends and no marvell if God smites him with the spirit of giddinesse and confusion His quotation of Gregory seemes to bee the same with that which wee finde in the decrees De consecrat dist 3. cap. Pervenit Now whereas this Praefacer relates it as of the same persons it is farre otherwise in Gregory for apparantly the relation in Gregory is concerning different persons for thus it runnes Pervenit ad me c. Relation is made unto mee that certaine men of a perverse spirit have sowed amongst you some corrupt doctrine contrary to our holy faith so as to forbid any worke to be done on the Sabbath day these men we may well call the Preachers of Antichrist Then he sets downe what shall be the practise of Antichrist at his comming namely to command the Sabbath day and the Lords day both to be kept free from all works And why the Lords day to wit because he meanes to imitate Christ and therefore will conforme himselfe to the practise of Christians in celebrating the Lords day his words are these Quia enim mori se resurgere simulat haberi in veneratione vult diem Dominicum that is Because he counterfeits himselfe to die and rise againe therefore he will have the Lords day to be had in veneration Where by the way observe two things 1. The practise of Christians in Gregories dayes to keep themselves from all worke on the Lords day 2. That Antichrist would imitate Christ as in pretending to dye and rise againe so in commanding the Lords day to be kept holy A shrewd evidence that both Gregory and the whole Church in those dayes were of opinion that the Lords day was of Christs institution which Antichrist perceiving would conforme thereto the better to promote his owne counsailes Now the reason why he would command the Jewes Sabbath to be observed also was Quia populum Judaizare compellet ut exteriorem ritum revocet sibi Judaeorum perfidiam subdat therefore coli vult Sabbatum He will have the Iewes Sabbath kept also compelling the people to Iudaize and restoring the outward ceremonies of the Law that so he may bring the Iewes in subjection unto him also Then he makes mention of another relation Aliud quoque ad me perlatum est Another report was brought unto mee and what was that Vobis à perversis hominibus esse praedicatum ut Dominico die nullus debeat lavari That some perverse persons preach among you that on the Lords day none ought to be washed This is clearly another point maintained by other persons different from the former which yet this Prefacer confounds into one And marke it well that none ought to be washed lavari on the Lords day which this Author translates thus No nor so much as wash upon the Sunday What not so much as wash their hands or their face here indeed were strange superstition I willingly professe I was not a little moved at this his Translation nothing answerable to Gregories resolution which is this If any desire to be washed pro luxuria pro voluptate that is out of a luxurious disposition and for pleasure we doe not permit this to be done on any day But if the bodies necessity require it we doe not forbid this on the Lords day Now I doe not find that any man useth to wash hands or face out of any luxurious disposition neither doe I know in what sense the necessity of the body can require it For the necessity of the body in this place seems to me to be spoken in reference to the recovery of a mans health requiring no time to be neglected Hereupon I am verily perswaded that by Lavari in Gregory is to be understood a mans going into the Bath which may be done out of a luxurious disposition and meerely for pleasure Then againe the necessity of the body may require it and according to these different cases it is by Gregory both permitted on the Lords day to wit in case of necessity and denyed on any day in case it be done only to satisfie a mans lusts And I find a great difference in the Latine phrase betweene Lavare to wash and Lavari to be washed and that out of Varro his eight booke of the Latine tongue For the active is of use when a part only is washed as it is rightly said I wash my hands and my feet But the passive is in use only when the whole body is washed as in the Bath Quare in Balneis non rectè dicunt lavi sed lavor Wherefore in the Bathes it is not well said I have washed but I am washed And accordingly runnes that in Juvenal Sat. 2. Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum aere lavantur The Scholiast interprets this of Infants quia pueri non dant Balneaticum for the quadrant which was the usuall fee to bee paid of them that made use of the Bathes was not exacted of such Hence is that phrase Mercede lavari to goe into the Baths paying a fee and dum te quadrante lavatum in Horace to the same purpose The second Section BUt after in the darker times as it is thought by some Preface Peter de Bruis the founder of the Petrobrusians he was burnt for heresie 1126. began to draw too deep on these lees of Judaisme which here our Doctor intimates
without doubt dictating thus much to the Apostles As for the third last resolutiō which he pins upon Calvins sleeve namely that the day of rest to be sanctified to the Lord is yet alterable by the church as at first it was neither that first alteration is by Calvin sayd to be made by the church but expressely by the apostles they admonished hereof by the day of Christs resurrection and Beza professeth that our Christian assembles on the Lords Day are of Apostolicall and Divine tradition And observe I pray how Bishop Andrewes pleades for Episcopall authority as by Divine right in his answer to the first Epistle of Peter Moulin An est apostolicum factum aliquod jure non apostolico Apostolico autem id est ut ego interpretor Divino Nec enim aliquid ab apostolis factum non dictante hoe iis spiritu Sancto Divino Is there any fact of the Apostles by right not apostolicall But by apostolicall that is as I interpret it by Divine For neither was there any thing done by the Apostles which the holy and divine Spirit did not dictate unto them Shall this be of force for the institution of Bishops and shall it not be of force for the institution of the Lords Day as by Divine right But put the case it were so in every particular of Calvin as this Prefacer avoucheth how comes it about that our adversaries practise to choake us with the authority of Calvin shall we be urged to yield to the authority of Calvin who are reproched usually as Calvinists and so nicknamed In my time of being in the University we heard by credible relation how in one of the Colleges questions were set up to be disputed Contrà Ioannem Calvinum and that disputations of that nature were sometimes concluded in this manner Relinquamus Calvinum in hisce facibus and we commonly say there is no smoake without some fire No longer agoe then at the act in Oxford last save one Anno 1634. I heard Calvinists reckoned up amongst Papists Pelagians Arminians Puritans as sectaries at least if not as Heretiques by him that preached the act Sermon on the Lords Day in the afternoone and is it fit that we should be pregravated by the opinion of Calvin a man whose memory seemes to be hated by men of this Prefacers spirit so as few men more The fourth Section Preface NEither was hee the onely one that hath so determined For for the first that to keepe holy one day of seven is not the morall part of the fourth Commandement our Doctor hath delivered in the third section that not Tostatus onely but even Aquinas and with him all the schoolemen have decreed upon it Nor was there any that opposed it in the schooles of Rome that I have met with till Catarinus tooke up Armes against Tostatus affirming but with ill successe that the Commandement of the Sabbath was imposed on Adam in the first cradle of the World there where the Lord is sayd to blesse the seventh Day and to sanctifie it 2 As for the Protestant schooles besides what is affirmed by Calvin and seconded by the Doctor in this following discourse this seemes to be the judgement of the Divines in the low Countries Franciscus Gomarus one knowne sufficiently for his undertakings against Arminians published An. 1628. a little treatise about the originall of the Sabbath and therein principally canvased these two questions First whether the Sabbath were ordained by God immediately upon the Creation of the World Then whether all Christians are obliged by the fourth Commandement alwayes to set a part one day in seven to Gods holy worship both which he determines negatively And Doctor Rivet one of the foure professors in Leyden although he differs in the first yet in the second which doth most concerne us Christians they agree together affirming also joyntly that the appointing of the Lords Day for Gods publique service was neither done by God himselfe nor by his Apostles but by the authority of the Church For seconds Gomarus brings in Vatablus and Wolfgangus Musculus and Rivet voucheth the authority of our Doctor here For so Gomarus in the assertion and defense of the first opinion against this Rivet De quibus etiam cl doctiss Doctor Prideaux in oratione de Sabbato consensionem extare codem judicio by Rivets information libenter intelleximus I will adde one thing onely which is briefely this The Hollanders when they discovered Fretum le Morire An. 1615. though they observed a most exact accompt of their time at Sea yet at their comming home they found comparing their accompt with theirs in Holland that they had lost a day that which was Sunday to the one being Munday to the other Which of necessity must happen as it is calculated by Geographers to those that compasse the World from West to East as contrary they had got a day had they sayled it Eastward And what should these people doe when they were returned if they must sanctifie precisely one day in seven they must have sanctified a day a part from their to her Countreymen and had a Sabbath by themselves or to comply with with others must have broken the morall Law which must for no respects be violated See more hereof at large in Carpenters Geogr. p. 237. Exam. That Calvin hath any where so determined this Prefacer hath not prooved but shamefully dismembred him thereby to make him to deliver something absolutly which he delivers onely conditionally and that in opposition unto Papists who will have the Lords Day to be kept not onely for order and policy sake but by reason of some mystery and this Calvin professeth to be Jewish Aquinas his words are these Habere aliquod tempus deputatum ad vacandum Divinis cadit sub praecepto morali sed in quantum in hoc praecepto determinatur speciale tempus in signum creationis Mundi sic est praeceptum ceremoniale To have some time deputed wherein to rest for things Divine falls under the morall precept But for as much as in this precept is determined a speciall time in signe of the Creation of the World so it is a praecept ceremoniall Where I doe observe first that this ceremoniality is apparently ascribed to the seventh day and that considered as a signe of the Creation and not to one day in seven And this indeed may well be the concurrent opinion of Schole Divines As for Abulensis of what authority is he to preponderate any one of our Divines nay I appeale to every humane conscience whether no more be morall in this precept then to set some time apart for Gods service For what is it nothing materiall whether we set apart for divine Service one day in a weeke or one day in a month or one day in a yeare or one day in twenty yeares or one day throughout the whole course of a mans life what conscience can be found so cauteriate as to justifie this
it is well known by them that are seene therein wherein consists a good dayes worke whereof whosoever failes he is accompted but an idle and unprofitable servant but so the worke of the day be done whether he laboureth more in one houre then in another he regardeth not Such in like manner is every ones consideration of a weekes worke So likewise as touching the service of God it is nothing materiall as touching the substance of Gods service what day of the weeke is set apart for that For whether we consider the advantagious nature of it for setting forth the glory of God who is our maker and as we came from him so we must be for him Rom. 11. Heb. 2. The supreame efficient being ever of duty the supreame end or whether we consider the profitable nature of it to our owne soules in comming acquainted with him both touching his nature touching his counsaile concerning us and touching his will For when we despise him we despise him against our selves and when wee provoke him wee provoke him to the confusion of our owne faces himselfe being nothing profited by our service but our owne soules rather though he be pleased to accompt himselfe glorified thereby it being his glory to doe us good This advancement of his glory and our good is no more promoted by setting one day in a weeke apart for this then another But betweene the proportion of one day in a weeke or one day in a moneth or one day in a yeare there is a vast and momentous difference For we come to the knowledge of God and of the mysteries of godlinesse by small degrees and in the wayes of holinesse we clamber as it were up an high and steepe hill and our life is a way fare our condition is the condition of travellours nay our life is a warfare and the Divell and his angells of darknesse goe about continually like so many roaring Lyons and hungry Beares seeking whom they may devoure So that we travell to Heaven as it were by dennes of Lyons and over mountaines of Libbards And will any wise man say that it matters not much in this case whether we acquaint our selves with the Armour of God one day in a weeke or one day in a moneth or one day in a yeare to arme our selves against such ghostly and watchfull enemies Secondly considering that it was never knowne that any master from the highest to the lowest was so foolish to leave it to his servant to cut out what proportion of service he thinkes fit wherewith to satisfie his master for his keeping and for the wages which he expecteth at his hands These things considered I say this first argument of Doctor Wallaeus is of great evidence and force and therefore it is to be well weighed and considered what answer either Doctor Rivetus or any other doth make unto it and what satisfaction it gives Now the answer that hee makes unto it proceeds not in his owne name but in the name of another to wit in the name of Gomarus and such as concurre with him To this they answer saith he that it is no inconvenience that there is no certaine number or circle of dayes defined for Gods service by any precept It is enough that the nature of publique worship in generall comprehended in the fourth Commandement doth require that not only certaine dayes be observed but that the number of them be sufficient also nor fewer then the right institution of the Church the salvation of men and glory of God doe require and that God by not defining it hath not left unto us a wild licentiousnes but a prudent liberty And therefore that it cannot be differred to one day in twenty or thirty much lesse to one of a thousand 2. Over and above they note saith he that from the morall reason of precept it is gathered what number of dayes is sufficient for Divine Service namely that seeing we are eased of the burden of ceremonies whereof the Iewes were not and yet God required one day in seven to be kept holy by them we may be more frequent in Divine offices but ought not to be lesseâ— but yet that GOD hath not precisely tied Christians to any that is as I take it to any day in the weeke whereas it should be to any proportion of time otherwise it is nothing to the present purpose 3. Doctor Rivetus addes this of his owne that Whereas this also is morall that some rest be granted to servants and labourers in charity the labour for so many dayes cannot be exacted of them without some rest To this I reply Here we have acknowledged that not only some time Resp 1. but also a sufficient proportion of time is to be set apart for Gods publique service and that by the very light of nature for that I conceave to be his meaning and not with reference to the precise Commandement commanding it but with reference unto it as it is morall and so acknowledged by light of nature For it is apparent that the Commandement in requiring a seventh doth therein require one day in seven and not leave it at randome what proportion of time but defines it 2. I appeale to every mans conscience and that as guided by the very light of nature so farre as it may be justly thought to be incorrupt whether it be not more fit the Lord himselfe should set downe what proportion of time he thinkes sufficient then that the definition hereof should be left to the servant and that for these considerations 1. If it be left unto man how improbable is it that all the Nations of the World as Christians are or may be found in all will concurre in judgement and if they doe not who seeth not what a way is hereby opened to miserable distraction and confusion consider what Socrates hath written of different rites in keeping Lent and in observing holydayes 2. If it be left to man it is very likely that little enough will be thought sufficient so burthensome unto flesh and bloud is Gods service and the major part in most Nations if not in all even of the best as is to be feared is not truly regenerate For as our Saviour tells us though many be called yet but few are chosen 3. upon this he concludes it may not be differred to the twentieth day yet it is well knowne that Brentius hath professed it may be differred to the fourteenth upon Leviticus 25.8 as Doctor Bownde alleageth him Now if so great a writer hath beene of opinion that from the seventh it may be put off to the 14th why may not another rise up and maintaine that from the fourteenth it may bee put off to the twentieth so dangerous it is to forsake that light which God hath given us in his Word and by way of divination hunt after a new light of evidence in the counsailes of our owne hearts In the light of my conscience it seemes most absurd that
perpetuall practise might bee confirmed in an opinion of the necessity of that which is not necessary It is apparent that as the Lords Day under the Law was one day in seven So the Lords Day in the Gospell was and still is one Day in seven And both himselfe and Gomarus are driven to professe that we may not allow a lesse proportion then one in seven to Divine worship And I appeale to every conscience to judge by the very light of nature whether the Lord requiring of the Jewes one day in seven to bee consecrated unto him it doth not manifestly follow that wee Christians can allow no lesse then one in seven and whether it bee not fiâ— that the Lords Day should bee our holy Day and as for the allowance of more in a weeke then one let them persuade their owne Churches thereunto first and then it will bee time enough for us to hearken unto them And what should move them to illustrate the memory of Christs Resurrection weekly whereas they contented themselves with a yearely memoriall if at all they observed any such of his Nativity Passion and Ascension and sending downe of the Holy Ghost Why doth hee not consider that the day of the weeke onely whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day in Scripture whereon Iohn the beloved Disciple received from his loving Lord and master that Divine revelation of his concerning things to come 4. If the number of seven that is the observation of one day in seven in this Commandement be changeable then as ceremoniall or as politicall not as ceremoniall for then the Church ought not to observe it Nor as politicall for in the morall Law precepts politicall are not given And to this Rivetus answereth that the observation of the seventh day is ceremoniall and that the Primitive Church kept it not neither did the Primitive Church keepe it nor doe we keepe it as ceremoniall but another seventh day for Ecclesiasticall policy sake not civill Respon When hee saith we keepe another seventh day he implieth that by the seventh formerly mentioned hee meant that particular day of the weeke which the Iewes kept and that wee indeed acknowledge to bee ceremoniall but in this interpretation of Wallaeus hee manifestly corrupts his adversaries argument which is plainly directed against the ceremoniality of one day in seven indefinitly considered and not against the ceremoniality of the Iewes seventh Yet when he saith the Primitive Church did and we doe keepe a seventh but not as ceremoniall hee speaks to the point but his words following have no coherence herewith so that hee may seeme to shuffle miserably in this affecting to decline that which he is not able to answer But take wee him at the best he must say that the observation of one day in seven was ceremoniall if hee speakes to the purpose Now let him shew us if he can the ceremoniality of one day in seven and how Christ was the body of it nothing more common then to affirme that the Iewes Sabbath was ceremoniall hand over head without any distinction of the sanctification of the day and the rest much lesse distinguishing betweene the rest of one day in seven and the rest of the seventh At length I found a faire way opened for the explication of the ceremoniality found in the rest on the seventh day But as for any ceremoniality in the rest of one day in seven never I thinke any man set his wits on worke to devise that Lastly after such a ceremoniality is devised wee will conferre whether in reason such a thing ought to bee still observed as was ceremoniall unto the Iewes and why may wee not as well observe circumcision with the Ethiopians who observe it only in conformity to Christ who was circumcised Now because Rivetus brings arguments also to the contrary to prove that the observation of one day in seven under the Gospell is not necessary but free it is fit we should consider them also to prove what force is in them If by force of the Commandement a seventh day is to be kept Rivet 1. then that day is to be kept which the Commandement hath defined which is the Sabbath of the Iewes Respon To this I answer by denying the consequence and not contenting my selfe with a bare deniall I prove it to bee inconsequent For whereas God in commanding the seventh hath therewithall commanded one in seven and withall specified which of the seven shall bee rested on and sanctified unto his service If it may bee made appeare that the particularity of rest on the seventh day be abrogated and no colour can be brought for the abrogation of the proportion of time to wit of keeping one day in seven it will evidently appeare herewithall that this consequence of Doctor Rivetus is unsound Now this wee prove to bee most true forasmuch as the Jewes rest on the seventh day was ceremoniall prefiguring Christs rest on that day in his grave as both the fathers of old and moderne Divines both Papists and Protestants both Lutheranes and Calvinists have acknowledged but never any man was found to devise a ceremoniality of resting one day in seven they may as well give themselves to devise a ceremonality in the setting apart of some time in generall for Gods holy worship and service 2. Now this puts me in minde of another way clearely to demonstrate the inconsequence of Rivetus his argument thus If it will follow that in case wee are bound to such a proportion of time by vertue of this Commandement therefore wee are bound also to keepe the seventh day Then it will follow as well that because wee are bound to set apart some time for the service of God by vertue of this Commandement as all confesse therefore we are bound also to keepe such a proportion of time as is here specified and the seventh day also which is here particulated For like as God doth not command such a proportion of time in speciall but by commanding the observation of the seventh day in like sort neither doth God Command a time in generall to bee set apart for his service but by commanding of such a proportion of time in speciall and such a Day in particular Rivet 2. 2. His second argument runnes thus if the observation of every seventh day bee morall it must bee knowne by light of nature but so it is not Therefore it is not morall and seeing it is not politicall it must bee ceremoniall and therefore doth not oblige by force of Law morall To this I answer first Resp 1. Let but Doctor Rivetus stretch his wits to describe unto us what ceremoniality can possibly bee devised in the obsertion of one day in seven and when hee hath devised it I dare appeale to his owne judgement and conscience for the appobation of it For I doe not thinke it possible for the wit of man with any colour of reason to devise a ceremoniality to be
for servants shal not be the day consecrated to the exercises of piety And I much wonder that Doctor Rivetus a man of such judgement and perspicacity doth not observe this The only way to helpe this anomaly is in plaine termes to professe that some rest is to be allowed to servants by their Masters but in what proportion that is not defined but left at large to the pleasure of their Masters And as for ceremoniality in the proportion of one day in seven never any man devised any such thing more then in the setting apart of some time in generall for Gods Service all confessing this to be a duty known by the very light of nature But I doe not finde that Calvin hath any other meaning then that we are not so tied to one day in seven but that more time then this may be consecrated to Divine Service which as I have disputed before so now I am the more confirmed herein Doctor Rivetus manifesting this to be his opinion also as well as it was the opinion of Gomarus For in this he rests as may appeare by his answer to the first argument of Doctor Wallaeus Neither is it true that Calvin did censure them who simply maintained that the observation of one day in the weeke doth still remaine as morall but that so maintained it as in reference to some mysterious signification a Doctor Wallaeus hath manifested and the words immediatly following in Calvin doe evince which are these but this is no other thing then in contumely of the Jewes to change the day and in heart to retaine the same holinesse of the day Here commonly the alleagers of Calvin to the same intent that Doctor Rivetus doth use to make a period as if Calvin delivered this absolutely whereas Calvin proposeth it onely conditionally as appeares by the other halfe of the sentence thus If so bee there remaine yet unto us a signification in the dayes equally mysterious to that which had place among the Iewes And though I marvell not at others who dealing in this argument dismember Calvins sentence so to make him to deliver that absolutely which hee delivers onely conditionally yet I cannot sufficiently marvell that Rivetus of rough improvidence should do so too especially considering the good paines that Doctor Walaeus hath taken to cleare Calvins meaning in this point Neither is Master Robert Low in his effigiation of the true Sabbatisme of any such authority as to counterpoise the concurrent testimonies of so many of our English Divines to the contrary not to speake of the multitude of outlandish Divines whom Doctor Walaeus mustereth up concurring in the same opinion and whereas hee saith as Doctor Rivetus reports him that some great men who vehemently contend that the perpetuall sanctity of manners doth require that one day in seven should be celebrated have more authority then reason I may bee bold to say that they who with him have hitherto opposed the Doctrine we maintaine what authority they have I know not but as for their reasons they are of so hungry a nature that hereby they manifest that nothing but affection and their private ends they have to beare them out in this And whereas I doubt not but Rivetus hath brought on the Stage the best reasons hee could picke both out of master Robert Low and out of Gomarus let every indifferent person judge of them as they deserve though I verily thinke that nothing but his affection to Calvin to hold up his credite and reputation hath carried him all along and yet either my selfe and Walaeus mystake Calvin or Rivetus miserably mystaketh him But as for our reason we call all the World to judge of it God did require one day in seven to be set apart for his publique service under the Law how much more doth he require as good a proportion of time under the Gospell Nay from the beginning of the World he hath required it and to this day both Iewes and Christian Gentiles have observed the same proportion Againe God in his morall Law hath required this and that not as ceremoniall never any man hitherunto having set his wits on worke to devise any ceremoniality herein neyther was it ever knowne that God abrogated this proportion of time to be allowed unto him for his service therefore it continueth still as a morall Law to bind us and shall continue untill God himselfe set an end unto it now let master Lowes reasons be compared with these in every indifferent conscience and let them have that authority which they deserve because being well conceited of the strength of his reasons hee sensibly complaines of his want of authority It seemes Pope Alexander the third was a man of more authority then reason For hee maintaines in Cap. licet de feriis as Doctor Rivetus relates it that both the old and new Testament have in speciall manner appointed the seventh day for man to rest thereon and hee takes it out of Suarez de relig l. 2. c. 2. but Rivetus cannot assent unto him if he delivers this of any morall institution yet that it was so appointed by the fourth Commandement unto the Iewes it cannot bee denied and that not as ceremoniall for we have seene how odly Rivetus hath carried himselfe in comming to speake of the ceremoniality For to make this good hee flyes to the particularity of the seventh day and if the ceremoniality thereof bee enough to inferre the ceremoniality of such a speciall proportion of time as of one day in seven it may suffice as well to constitute a ceremoniality in the generall namely in this that some time is to be set apart for Gods Service which yet all account to bee morall by the very light of nature If Zanchy hath no better argument to prove that the Decalogue as given by Moses to the Israelites doth not pertaine to us but onely so farre forth as it agrees with the Law of nature then by instancing in the Sabbath which the Gentiles were not bound to sanctifie it stands Rivetus upon to oppose him as much as any who maintaines that the Law concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath was given to Adam and who brings diverse authorities to prove the observation of it generally by the Gentiles This I speake upon consideration of his reply to Gomarus taking exception against somewhat in this argument delivered by him in his explication of the Decalogue But I hope the morall Law shall be sufficient to binde us Christians if no other way yet by this argument of proportion If God required of the Iewes under the Law that one day in seven should bee set apart to his service how much more doth it become us Christians to allow as good a proportion of time for his service under the Gospell This I say shall suffice untill Rivetus answeareth it which never will be for he as good as confesseth that we are bound to allow God for his service rather a better proportion of time then
Love of God manifested in his Sonne inflamed his true servants according to that of Iohn We love him because he loved us first Againe if wee consider the service of that day as such wherby our soules are profited and promoted in faith and holinesse never was there more need then in these dayes of sanctifying a better proportion of time unto God Service rather then a worse and that in each respect For the truth of God was never so encombred with oppositions before the comming of our Saviour in the flesh as it hath beene since No heretiques to speake of were knowne to trouble the peace of the Church in those former times in comparison to the multitude of heresies that have beene broached since and began to bee set on foote in the very dayes of the Apostles Saint Paul professing that even then the mystery of iniquity did worke And whereas Saint Peter tells us that false teachers should come privily bringing in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them Saint Iude tells them to whom hee writes that such were already crept in turning the grace of God into wantonnesse and denying God the onely Lord and our Lord Jesus Christ And Saint Iohn after the same manner little children saith hee it is the last time and as you have heard that Antichrist shall come even now there are many Antichrists And no marvaile for as much as the mysteries of godlinesse concerning the Trinity of persons and incarnation of the Sonne of God whereat carnall wits are so apt to stumble were never so punctually and distinctly expressed in the books of the old Testament as now they are particularly delivered in the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists So that had wee in these dayes two Sabbaths in a weeke insteed of one all were little enough to instruct our people and strengthen them against the oppositions made by men of carnall mindes and thereby to keepe them in the right way of Gods saving truth And no lesse necessitie is there for the keeping of them in the wayes of holinesse such is the degenerate condition of the World Long agoe it is that the severe judgement of God had its course in giving men over to illusions to beleeve lies and all for not receiving the love of the truth as much as to say for the profanenesse of the Christian World in not making it their care to walke worthy of their calling worthy of the Gospell whereunto the Apostle so often exhorts Christians So that if at any time it were requisite to set one day in seven apart for the service of God surely by the very dictate of common reason it is most requisite in these latter dayes of the Gospell Especially considering the rage and fury of Satan in opposing the Kingdome of Christ more now than ever because he knoweth hee hath but a short time As for the alteration of the day the same proportion of time still continuing from the seventh to the first day of the weeke that I confesse willingly seemes not at first sight to have the like evidence But whereas this Prefacer contends for the alteration of the day as onely by an humane and Ecclesiasticall constitution observe that not one of the ancient Fathers are mentioned by him for the justifying of this though divers are referred unto by him as against the institution of the Sabbath from the Creation But wee have divers of the ancients bearing witnesse to the Divine institution of the Lords day to come in place of the seventh As first Athanasius Homil. de Semente Olim certe priscis hominibus in summo pretio Sabbatum fuit quam quidem solemnitatem Dominus in diem Dominicum transtulit Heretofore truly the Sabbath was in great price with men of old time which solemnity the Lord hath translated unto the Lords Day Austine hath divers other passages to the same purpose de civitate dei lib. 22. cap. ult Dominicus dies velut octavus aeternus qui Christi Resurrectione sacratus est aeternam non solum Spiritus verumetiam corporis requiem prafigurans The Lords Day as the eighth eternall which was sacred by Christs Resurrection prefiguring an eternall rest not of the spirit only but of the body also and in his Ep. 119. ad Ianuarium The Lords Day is declared not to the Iewes but to Christians by the Lords Resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity and de verbis Apostoli Sermo 15. The Lords Resurrection promised unto us an eternall day and hath consecrated to us the Lords Day which is called the Lords because the Lord rose on that day and de Temp. Serm. 251. The Apostles and Apostolicall men have therefore ordained the Lords day to be kept with a religious solemnity because on that day our redeemer rose from the dead Cyril in Joan. lib. 12. cap. 58. From Christ presenting himself unto his Apostles on the eighth day which hee interpreteth of the first day of the weeke concludes therehence that by right therefore holy Congregations are kept in the Churches on that day And as Walaeus observes the celebrity of this day Eusebius referres to Christ himselfe in these words Who ever prescribed to all the inhabitants of the World either by Sea or Land that meeting together one day in the weeke they should celebrate the Dominicall festivity Athan. on that of Mat. 11.27 All things are given to me of my Father Adde to this that of Gregory mentioned Section the 1. Nay Athanasius goes further and shewes the equity of it in proportion to the new Creation compared with the old The end of the first Creation was the Sabbath but the beginning of the second Creature is the Lords Day wherein hee renewed and repayred the old man Like as therefore in former times he would have the Sabbath day to be kept so we keepe holy the Lords Day as a monument of the beginning of the second Creation And this proportion is apprehended by Beza also on the Revelation the first Chap. and 10. verse That Sabbath day saith hee continued from the Creation of the World to the Lords resurrection which seeing it is as it were an other Creation of another spirituall World as the Prophets speake then for the Sabbath of the former World or seventh day was assumed and that undoubtedly by the Holy Ghost suggesting this to the Apostles the first day of this new World in which not the corporall or corruptible light in the first day of the first World was created but that heavenly and eternall light did spring unto us In all which Beza doth exactly treade in the steps of that ancient Father Athanasius and concludes that the assemblies of the Lords Day which Justine expresly makes mention of in his second Apologetium are of tradition apostolicall and truly Divine And after him Doctor Andrewes late Bishop of Winchester whom Doctor Hall now Bishop of Exceter some where calls the Oracle of these times upon the same ground maintaines the
equity of bringing our Lords Day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath In his speech in the Starre Chamber against Traske The Sabbath saith hee had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are a new Creature a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And againe It hath ever beene the Churches doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the Grave That Sabbath was the last of them And that the Lords Day presently came in place of it And for the confirmation hereof brings in that of Austin Ep. 119 ad Ianuarium The Lords Day by Christs Resurrection hath beene declared unto Christians and from that time began to have its festivity These Theses of his were written as it seemes in opposition to Broade Doctor Lakes Bishop of Wells maintaines the same Doctrine after the same manner in his Theses de Sabbato thes 27. Man having sinned and so by sinne abolished the first Creation De jure though not de facto God was pleased by Christ to make a new instauration of the World 28. He as the Scripture speakes of Christs redemptions made a new Heaven and a new Earth Old things passed then away and so all things were made new 29. Yea every man in Christ is a new Creature 30. As God then when he ended the first Creation made a day of rest and sanctified it 31. So did Christ when he ended his worke made a day of rest and sanctified it 32. Not altering the proportion of time which is eternall but taking the first day of seven for his portion because sin had made the seventh alterable But a man may easily perceive whither this Prefacer tends and such as are of his Spirit The Rhemists upon the first of the Revel and 10. verse doe observe that the Apostles and the faithfull abrogated the Sabbath which was the seventh day and made holy day for it the next day following being the eighth day in compt from the Creation and that without all Scriptures and Commandements of Christ that we read of yea which is more not only otherwise then was by the Law observed but plainly otherwise than was prescribed by God himselfe in the second Commandement yea otherwise than he ordained in the first Creation when he sanctified precisely the Sabbath day and not the day following Such great power did Christ leave to his Church and for such causes gave he the Holy Ghost to be resident in it to guide it into all truthes even such as in the Scripture are not expressed And if the Church had authority and inspiration from God to make Sunday being a working day before an everlasting holy day and the Saturday that before was holy day now a common work-day why may not the same Church prescribe and appoint the other feasts of Easter Whitsontide Christmas and the rest for the same warrant she hath for the one as she hath for the other Now to this Doctor Fulk makes answer after this manner The Apostles did not abrogate the Jewish Sabbath but Christ himselfe by his death as he did all other ceremonies of the Law that were figures and shadowes of things to come whereof he was the body and they were fulfulled and accomplished in him and by him And this the Apostles knew both by the Scriptures and by the Word of Christ and his holy Spirit By the Scriptures also they knew that one day of seven was appointed to be observed for ever during the World as consecrated and hallowed to the publike exercise of the Religion of God Although the ceremoniall rest and prescript day according to the Law were abrogated by the death of Christ Now for the prescription of this day before any other of seven they had without doubt either the expresse commandement of Christ before his ascension when he gave them precepts concerning the Kingdome of God and the order and government of the Church Acts 1.2 or else the certaine direction of his Spirit that it was his will and pleasure it should be so and that also according to the Scriptures And observe how in the words following he falls in upon the same reason of the change of the day which of old was mentioned by Athanasius formerly rehearsed herein by Beza Doctor Andrews D. Lake as I have already shewed Seeing there is the same reason of sanctifying the day in which our Saviour Christ accomplished our redemption and the restitution of the world by his resurrection from death that was of sanctifying the day in which the Lord rested from the creation of the world And after many lines nothing necessary to be recited he comes to the comparison made betweene the Lords Day and other Festivalls saying Although the Church in dayes or times which are indifferent may take order for some other dayes or times to be solemnized for the exercises of Religion or the remembrance of Christs nativity resurrection ascension or the comming of the holy Ghost may be celebrated either on the Lords Day or any other time yet there is great difference between the authority of the Church in this case and the prescription of the Lords Day by the Apostles for the speciall memory of those things are indifferent of their nature either to be kept on certaine daies or left to the discretion of the Governours of the Church But to change the Lords Day or to keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath no authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles And againe in the next place The cause of this change it was not our estimation that either we have or ought to have of our redemption before our creation but the Ordinance of God who as first he sanctified the rest from creation for the glory of that weeke so now also he sanctifieth the day of the restitution of the world for his glory of the accomplishment of our redemption Thus wee have not onely authority Humane but authority Divine for the alteration of the Day and that by the testimony of more Bishops antient and late than this Prefacer makes shew of amongst farre meaner names Yet he doth immodestly abuse Doctor Prideaux in putting it upon him that in the fifth Section he maintaines the alteration of the day to be onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall institution For in that Section he onely opposeth them who would derive the Divine authority which they stand for of the alteration of the Day from the old Testament but as for those who derive the Divine authority thereof from the new they hee confesseth doe carry themselves herein more warily the other more weakly and them alone he disputes against in that Section In the sixth Section he comes to the deriving thereof from the new Testament and first he challengeth them who boast that they have found the insti ution of the Lords Day in the new Testament expressely
together on this day But upon better consideration and ponderation of the passages alleged by him out of Austine and Cyril I thinke rather that by Christs fact he means Christ resurrection or perhaps btoh the one and the other For the sentence taken out of Austine hath reference to the one and that out of Cyril to the other And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his thes 36. de Sabbato referres unto both this first day Christ sanctified not onely by his resurrection but by sundrie apparitions before his ascention by sending them the Holy Ghost But the latter seem to depend on the former And therefore that learned Bishop in his defence of that Thesis 36. writes thus I say not that the Apostles imprinted any holinesse upon the first day of the weeke it was Christs resurrection that honoured that day which I say the Apostles were to respect not arbitrarily but necessarily you may perceive the reason in my Thesis you cannot observe from the beginning of the world any other inducement to the institution of feasts but Gods worke done on the day Now neither Austin nor Cyril speake of any institution made by Christ Eusebius I confesse doth intimate such an institution and Gregory the great and so doth Athanasius seeme to expresse as much and Sedulius after him but I am apt to conceive that they meant no other thing hereby than that the consideration of Christs resurrection by the suggestion of Christs Spirit should move the Apostles to ordaine and establish the celebration of this day unto the Christian world Junius in my judgement seemes to have no other meaning when he professeth the cause of the change of the day to be the resurrection of Christ and the benefit of instauration of the Church in Christ it is true he saith afterwards that the Lords Day succeeded the seventh Christi observatione atque instituto by Christ observation and ordinance but I understand thereby no other ordinance than is bespoken by Christs resurrection on the day and observation of the day For anon he tells us that the Lords Day was observed Christi facto exemplo instituque Apostolorum veteris Ecclesiae observatione constantissimâ by Christs fact example and by the ordinance of the Apostles unlesse instituto there be to be referred to that which goes before and ought to be distinguished from Apostolorum which comes after by a comma though it be not But let this be the opinion of Iunius and Piscator which perhaps we may meet with some more evidence for than hitherto Neither doe I see any necessity of expressing concerning every thing they taught that they received it of the Lord Neither doe I thinke fit to conclude that whatsoever they ordered they ordered by Gods Commandement But consider there is a great difference between things ordered by them some were concerning particulars others for the Church universall Some ordered by them for a certaine time other things to continue to the worlds end The ordinance of the Lords Day concerned the whole Church and to this day no Church throughout the world hath thought fit to alter it a notable evidence that the Church generally hath conceived it as an ordinance of the Apostles intended to continue to the worlds end The ingenuity of Master Perkins is to be commended confessing ingenuously that hee proposeth his arguments not as necessary but as probable onely to inferre the institution of the first day of the weeke to be observed by Christians in place of the seventh I would those that oppose him would carry themselves with the like ingenuity nothing inferiour is the ingenuity of Doctor Walaeus pag. 156. professing that this opinion touching Christs institution of the Lords Day seeing it hath so great Divines as favourers thereof is neither to be accused of novelty nor easily to be despised as false provided that they themselves doe not propose it as necessary but as probable nor inveigh against such as are of another opinion or condemne them Now let us see upon what grounds he preferres the second opinion making the institution of the Lords Day to depend upon Apostolicall authoritie before it Therefore first he urgeth that the Apostles have given no expresse commandement as being charged thereto by Christ nor Christ himselfe In briefe thus neither Christ hath any where in Scripture commanded it nor doe the Apostles any where signify that hee did I answer the Apostles doe not use to signify that what they deliver in particular was given them in charge by Christ sometimes they doe but this extends not to the hundreth part of that they doe deliver And it may bee by S. Iohns calling it the Lords Day compared with that which our Saviour delivers in the Gospell pray that your flight bee not in the Winter nor upon the Sabbath day and with the denomination of the Jewes Sabbath called in the Old Testament the Lords holy day wee shall finde sufficient intimation of Christs institution Especially considering that the question is but of the circumstance of a particular day not of the proportion of time and withall the analogy of the day of Christs Resurrection to the day of the Lords rest from Creation And whereas the Doctor further sayth that it seemes not likely that Christ should not command it if he meant to binde us to the observation of any day as a part of his worship and service Now I wonder what the worthy Doctor meanes to thrust in the circumstance as a part of Gods Worship If the Apostles might command it as he thinkes they did yet not as a part of Gods worship why might not Christ command the observation of that day yet not as a part of his worship I am not perswaded that when God at the first sanctifyed the seventh day hee made the observation of that day a part of his worship And it is strange that the circumstance of time should bee an homogeneall part of Gods worship First it is true the rest on that day commanded afterwards might bee and was as a ceremony preaching something unto them All that is to bee considered in time pertaining to Gods Worship is the proportion of it as whether one day in a weeke bee most fit or one day in a moneth bee sufficient and this is of momentous consideration whether wee consider the advancing GODS Glory thereby or our owne good in a greater or lesser proportion But the particularity of the day in seven whether first or last or middlemost this consideration in my judgement is of no moment Only for the avoyding of dissention confusion we have neede of authoritative specification and that God did not define at the first without congruous reason to still all motion tending to alteration and if we have as fayre evidence under the Gospell for our Sabbath as the Jewes had for theirs wee are by Gods goodnesse as much freed from dissension and confusion as they and nothing the more ingaged in superstition as
making the observation of the day a part of Divine worship which never was but in the way of prefiguration of somewhat in Christ which kind of pedagogy is now quite out of date neither is there any place for it in the observation of the Lords day Doctor Walaeus his second argument is because those places of Scripture Rom. 14. Gal. 4. Coloss 2. in which the Apostle takes away all difference of dayes can hardly bee reconciled with this opinion or if Christ himselfe not by example onely but by an ordinance commanded unto his Disciples the observation of this day it cannot bee imagined as it seemes that any liberty should now remaine in the observation of this day for that which Christ hath determined is not left under Christian liberty any more then the observation of the seventh day from the Creation was left free to the Jewes when God not onely by his example but also by precept separated it from all other dayes to his service To this I answer 1. I finde no liberty at all left to the Church to change the day by the Doctors owne grounds for hee holds it to bee invariable p. 168. Secondly Hee professeth the change of the day cannot bee attempted without the greatest scandall of the Church p. 169. Now what sober Christian would affect liberty to bee scandalous 3. others who acknowledge the observation of the day by Apostolicall institution and withall to bee changeable and left to the liberty of the Church doe withall maintaine that the Apostles did not command it as extraordinary Ministers of Christ but Doctor Waleus p. 172. acknowledgeth the institution of it made by the Apostles as Ministers extraordinary 4. the Doctor professeth that the Apostles were entrusted by the Holy Ghost to give precepts concerning the good government of the Church and that in this particular case to make knowne to all Christians every where what day in the weeke ought to be kept holy and that by vertue and analogy of the fourth Commandement and withall to prevent dissension and confusion amongst the Churches thereabouts 5. and lastly hee joynes the precepts concerning this with precepts concerning faith and manners and this hee doth without specifying any the least difference nay the word precepts is once proposed as subservient indifferently as to faith and manners so also to the well ordering of the Church and that in this particular of notifying unto all what day of the weeke is it to bee sanctified to Gods Service As for the places Rom. 14. Gal. 2. Coloss 2. I answer that if wee made the observation of the day as it denotes a circumstance of time any part of Gods Service or for some mysterious signification contained therein then indeed wee should carry our selves in contradiction to the places mentioned but seeing we observe times onely out of respect to order and policy which is necessary for the edification of the Church and God having always required one day in seven to be set apart for this even when there was not so great need nor had God manifested his love to mankinde in such sort as in these latter dayes and of our selves wee are to seeke of the particularity of the day under a fit proportion of time from the beginning of the World rquired and hereupon were we left to our owne judgements a way would bee opened to miserable dissension and confusion what cause have wee to blesse the Lord for marking out a day to us with such notable characters to make it our Sabbath and to honour it by his appearance amongst his Apostles when they were assembled together both that day and that day senight after as also by his Apostles to commend it and establish it in such sort that for 1600. yeares the observation thereof hath continued unto this day which order of the Apostles doth carry pregnant presumption that it proceeded originally from the institution of Christ The necessity of the Church Christian requiring the specification of the day for the preventing of dissension and confusion as much as ever the necessity of the Jewish Church required the like and over and above by reason of the fourth Commandement wee have now better evidence to conclude therehence the observation of the Lords Day by the congruity that Christs Resurrection hath to the Lords rest from Creation better means I say to conclude ours then they without a Commandement to inferre the observation of their seventh forstill the day of the Lords rest is made the day of our rest Thirdly that which is alleadged in the third place that both ancient and late writers doe maintaine that wee celebrate the Lords Day not as any part of Divine worship nor as absolutely necessary For the first of these wee willingly grant for as much as wee conceave the observation of the 7th by the Jewes was no otherwise a part of Divine worship then as it was a ceremony and shadow the body whereof was Christ prefigured thereby and it is well knowne that no Christians observe it in any such Notion But the observation thereof wee hold to bee absolutely necessary and so doth Doctor Walaeus in holding it to bee invariable and that it cannot bee altered without the greatest scandall And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells professeth it to bee not liberae observationis but necessariae And if it were free then not to use this freedome at all doth manifestly give way to superstition in taking that for a thing necessary which is not though not as touching the substance of Gods worship and service yet as touching a circumstance thereof such as is the circumstance of time As for expresse precept if hee meanes a precept expressely written no man I trow ever stood for that but if hee meanes a precept given by Christs expresse charge to his Apostles no man that I have met with saith more hereupon then Doctor Walaeus seemes to affirme himselfe in saying that they were entrusted by the Holy Ghost as extraordinary Ministers that they should bee faithfull ad tradenda praecepta to give praecepts of faith and manners and of the good government of the Church and right order and particularly in this that might be known to all what day in the weeke was to be set apart for Gods service both by vertue and analogy of the fourth Commandement and to praevent dissension and confusion among the Churches Neither doe we acknowledge any other celebrity of the day then this and therefore doe no more affront Hierome then Doctor Walaeus himselfe As for festivall dayes in Socrates and Nicephorus I see no cause why as touching that they speake thereof the Lords Day should bee comprehended under them and as for apostolicall precept concerning this Doctor VValaeus is as expresse as any And it is not credible to mee that the Apostles should make such an invariable ordinance to the Church and not bee verily perswaded that it was the Will of God the Father and of God the Sonne it
Christ bringing with it a new Creation Shall wee preferre the Saturday the Jewes festivall before it shall wee preferre the Friday the day of the Turkes festivall before it shall wee affect power and liberty to make any other day in the weeke the Lords holy day rather then that the Word of God commends unto us for the Lords Day in the time of the Gospell This I suppose may suffice for answering the rest also whensoever their suffrages shall bee brought to light for I presume none of them hath sayd more then Chemnitius hath done Azorius the Jesuite professeth of two things in this argument that they are most agreeable to reason First that after six worke dayes one entire day should bee consecrated to God 2. that the Lords Day should bee it Doctor Fulke in answer to the Remish Testament professeth that to change the Lords Day and keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath no authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles This was printed in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth and dedicated unto her Majesty what Bishop as gouernour in this Church of England hath ever beene known to take exception against this Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his starre Chamber speech in the Case of Traske professeth that the Sabbath to wit of the Iewes had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are now Creatures As the Apostle S. Paul speakes a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And this he saith is deduced plainly 1. by practise 2. by precept that these two onely the first day of the weeke and the Sacrament of the Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum the Lords is alike to be taken in both So that give power to the Church to alter the one and you may as well give power to the Church to alter the other He shewes also it was an usuall question put to Christians Dominicum servasti Hast thou kept the Lords Day And their answer was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian and I cannot intermit it Lastly he allegeth the Synod of Laodicea Can. 29. acknowledged in that of Chalcedon 133. that Christian men may not Judaize not make the Saturday their day of rest but that they are to worke on that day giving their honour of celebration to the Lords Day Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his Thesis of the Sabbath 39. The Church hath received it the Lords Day not to be liberae observationis of free observation as if men might at pleasure accept or refuse it 40. But to be perpetually observed to the worlds end For as God onely hath power to apportion his time so hath he power to set out the day that he will take for his portion For he is Lord of the Sabbath 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekely monethly or yeerely as particulars evince in Scripture and History 47. No man can translate the works therefore no man can translate the day This is an undoubted rule in Theologie Adde unto these Iunius and Piscator who maintaine the subrogation of the Lords Day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath to have beene made by the ordinance of Christ and Beza acknowledgeth it to be traditionis Apostolicae verè divinae Doctor Brownde in his Treatise of the Sabbath lib. 1. pag. 47. having recited the opinion of Iunius referring the institution of the Lords Day to Christs ordinance as who rose from the dead on that day addeth hereunto after this manner Like unto the which because nothing can ever fall out in the world comparable unto it in glory and power therefore this day must continue in his first honour of sanctification unto the end of all things and no day be set up like to it or it changed into any other day lest the wonderfull glory of that thing be darkened and the infinite power of it weakned I meane the glorious and mighty worke of our redemption which by the sanctification of this Sabbath is commended unto us and we by keeping that holy still doe commend it to our posterity And this is it that is alleged as a reason of the observation of this day in the Apostles constitutions Const Apost l. 7. c. 37. It is called the Lords Day because it declares unto us Christ crucified and raised up againe and it is worthily commended to be kept as the Lords Day that wee might give thankes unto thee O Lord Christ for all these benefits for say they there is that grace bestowed upon us by thee Qua sua magnitudine omnia beneficia obscurat which by the greatnesse and as it were by the brightnesse of it doth obscure and darken all other So that though the day was once changed upon these considerations nay they being such as they be it could not but be changed yet forsomuch as the like cause can never be offered unto men to move them to enter into this consideration therefore the day must not onely not be changed any more but it must not so much as enter in mens thoughts to goe about to change it And therefore I doe so much the more marvell at him who saith That the keeping holy of the Lords Day is not commanded by the authority of the Gospel but rather received into use by the publique consent of the Church And a little after The observation of the Lords Day is profitable and not to be rejected but yet it is not to be accounted for a commandement of the Gospel but rather for a civill ordination And that the Church might have appointed but one day in ten or foureteene for the publique rest and Gods service Lastly Master Perkins maintaines the same not to mention Doctor Willet and that by divers reasons in his cases of conscience which because they are modestly answered by Doctor Rivet in his commentary upon the Decalogue I thinke good in this place to take them into consideration A FOVRTH DIGRESSION MAKING GOOD Mr. PERKINS his Arguments for the Divine institution of the Lords Day against the answer made unto them by Doctor RIVETVS Perkins THeir first Argument saith he is taken from the appellation of the Lords Day I suppose saith Master Perkins it is called the Lords Day as the last supper of Christ is called the Lords Supper for two causes First as God rested the seventh day after the creation so Christ having finished the worke of the new creation rested on this day from the work of Redemption Secondly as Christ did substitute the last supper in roome of the passeover so hee substituted the first day of the weeke in roome of the Jewes Sabbath to be a day set apart to his owne worship To this Doctor Rivet answereth after this manner Rivet Answ First hee denies that there is the same reason
of the Lords supper the Lords Day and that for two reasons first because we have a manifest institution thereof and Christs Precept for the observing of it Not so of the Lords Day Secondly if there were a Precept for keeping the Lords Day yet were it Ecclesiasticall and so mutable For men may choose daies for the worship of God as touching the particularity of this day or that But the institution of the Sacraments is of Divine authority by the consent of all To this I replie that Doctor Rivetus corrupts Master Perkins his answer in the proposing of it Repl. for he sayth not the same is the reason of the Lords Supper and of the day which wee call the Lords Day but supposeth and that most modestly that either of them being called the Lords they are called so in the same Notion That like as the Lords Supper is so called because he instituted it so the first day of the weeke is called the Lords Day because hee instituted the observation of it And this Doctor Thysius collegue to Doctor Rivetus maintaines as well as Master Perkins and Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his speech against Traske saying that both these to wit the first day of the weeke and Christ last Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum the Lords is alike to bee taken in both For what reason can bee given why the day of Christs Resurrection not according to the day of the yeare wherein hee arose but according to the day of the weeke wherein hee arose should bee called the Lords Day but to signifie First that it was to succeed in the place of the Lords Dayunder the law which was the Jewish Sabbath 2. And that it was the good pleasure of God and not of man onely that it should bee consecrate to his service For consider wee have many other dayes consecrated by the Church unto Divine service which yet were never called the Lords Dayes And the Lords Day and the Lords feasts in the Old Testament and in the language of the Holy Ghost are no other then such that are of the Lords institution Secondly Doctor Rivetus omits the maine force of Master Perkins his argument or at least slightly passeth it over which is this As God rested the seventh day after the Creation so Christ having ended the worke of the new Creation rested on this day from his worke of redemption Athanasius of old considers a first and a second Creation and so accordingly a first and a second Sabbath our Saviour himselfe speakes of a Christian Sabbath Math. 24.20 and wâ—â—t should that bee but the Lords Day under the Gospell And Beza and Iunius and Bishop Andrewes worke upon the same And I wonder that men should thinke the Sabbath should bee altered and another brought into the place of it by any other authority then of him who is Lord of the Sabbath And as Bishop Lake observes in all feasts both Divine and humane that wee reade of in Scripture the worke of the day was the ground of hallowing the day And never was known to the World a more wonderfull worke in the way of grace and mercy then Christs Resurrection from the dead manifesting thereby the redemption of the World as then wrought by him How doth Christ take upon him to alter the Sacraments but as Lord of the Sacraments and apparently he shewes that upon the same ground hee takes upon him power to dispense or change the Sabbath as hee is Lord of the Sabbath But what is his ground to deny the parity of reason here meerely his owne prejudicate conceit that the obligation of the Lords Day is not so great as the observation of the Sabbath The contrary whereunto saith he omnes refugimus we all avoyd But who and how many are those all what one of the ancients can hee produce to have thought as hee thinks Hee may as well say according to the current of his private opinion that wee under the Gospell are not as much bound to the observation of one day in seaven as the Jewes were under the Law It is true that rigorous rest enjoyned to the Jewes wee utterly disclaime as well as hee againe the circumstance of the day wee make no part of Gods worship nor to have any mysterious signification as the Sabbath had to the Jewes Wee acknowledge no other use of this day then for order and policy sake in which case wee judge it farre better the Lord should prescribe it then wee unto our selves least if there were twenty dayes in the weeke there would bee twenty differences amongst Christians about the setting apart of one day in the weeke for Divine Service Perkins 2. Master Perkins his second argument is this The Church of Corinth every first day of the weeke made a collection for the poore 1 Cor. 16.2 and this collection for the poore in the primitive Church followed the preaching of the Word Prayer and the Sacraments as a fruite thereof Acts 2.42 and Paul commands the Corinths to due this as he had ordained in the Churches of Galatia whereby he makes it to be an Apostolicall and therefore a Divine Ordinance Yea that very Text doth in some part manifest thus much that it is an ordinance and institution of Christ that the first day of the weeke should be the Lords Day For Paul commandes nothing but what he receaved from Christ To this Doctor Rivetus alledgeth the answer of Doctor Prideaux Rivets Ans Reply demanding how that we contend for his inferred herehence we answer the generall practise of the Church in the Apostles dayes argues it manifestly that this order was established by the joynt consent of the Apostles otherwise it is incredible it should have beene so universally receaved and persevered in as it hath beene to this day Secondly wheras the Jewes Sabbath was by divine authority the abrogation thereof and substituting another day in the place thereof could bee done by no lesse authority then Divine which also wee conceave to bee fairely represented by the denomination of our Christian Sabbath S. Iohn calling it the Lords Day Secondly he sheweth what Gomarus answereth hereunto but this answer himselfe taketh off in this very place in part and much more in his reply to Gomarus But these places being granted to denote the first day of the weeke in the Apostles dayes set apart to Divine Service hee sayth it followes not herehence that it is called the Lords Day as destinated to Gods Service much lesse that so it was by Divine ordination Yet Walaeus thinkes it his safest course to say t is called the Lords Day as destinated to Gods Service as before wee have heard so to avoyd as hee thinkes the implication of Divine Ordination But to him I have answered before And Doctor Rivetus in my opinion doth not wel consider that not the day of the yeare but the day of the weeke whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day by S.
the judgement of all the Prelates of this Kingdome and of the whole Parliament Now let every sober Reader judge whether my selfe as an English man have not better ground from an act of Parliament to censure them of Geneva for prophaners of the Sabbath in the case here pretended then this Praefacer from the practise of Geneva by the relation of Robert Iohnson to consure us that doe mislike them herein if this bee their practise for superstitious observers of the Sabbath especially considering that hee cannot fasten this censure upon such as my selfe but withall hee must passe the same upon all Prelates of the Kingdome together with the Lords temporall and the whole house of Commons And as for the exercises here mentioned I finde them to fall wondrously short of that which the author avoucheth as namely that they esteeme the Sabbath to lie open to all honest exercises and lawfull recreations for I make no question but in this Praefacer his opinion there are farre more exercises and lawfull recreations then that of shooting which alone is here mentioned and whereas such things are permitted in the very morning of the Sabbath and aswell afore as after Sermon I finde no thing answerable hereunto in the practise of our Church Neither doe I finde that the exercises here mentioned are so much accommodated to the refreshing of the minde and quickning of the spirit as to make their bodies active and expedite in some functions which may be for the service of the common Wealth And lately upon enquiry hereabout I have receaved information that at Geneva after evening prayer onely the youth doth practise shooting in Guns to make them more ready and expert for the defence of the City which is never out of danger They have also at foure a Clocke on the Morning both Service and a Sermon for their servants and 2. more in every Church the one in the Fore-noone the other in the After-noon beside Catechizing the youth on the Sabbath Day And Bishop Lake wished that such a course were generall as is in his Majesties Court to have a Sermon in the Morning for the servants on the Sabbath day And I see no cause to dissent from Gerardus in specifying 4. particulars whereby the Sabbath is not violated Parva Necessarium Respublica cum pietate Undoubtedly hunting is as commendable as and more generous exercise then any of these and the Kings Majesty though much delighted herein yet never useth to hunt on the Sabbath Day Morning or Evening And I have cause to come but slowly to the believing hereof because it is Calvins Doctrine concerning the Sabbath that albeit under the Gospell we are not bound to so rigorous a rest as the Jewes were yet that still wee are obliged to abstaine from all other works as they are Avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus Avocations from holy studies and Meditations and their Ministers I should thinke doe not well if they faile to minde them hereof unlesse both they and the people are fallen from Calvins Doctrine in this point in which case I see no just cause why any should choake us therewith but give us as much liberty to dissent from him in the Doctrine of the Sabbath as they of Geneva take unto themselves Againe Beza is well knowne to have professed upon Revel 1.10 that the observation of the Lords Day is traditionis Apostolicae verè Divinae and consequently that the day is not left arbitrary neither hath this author proved that the Presbytery and states of Geneva both Ecclesiasticall and politicall have committed any revolt or apostacy thereto from Beza in this point It is well hee acknowledgeth some recreation not suffered there as namely dancing but this hee sayth they hold unlawfull which simply delivered as by this author it is is incredible unto mee neither hath this authors word any sufficient authority to deliver mee from this incredulity yet some manner of dancing may perhaps bee generally forbidden in the French Protestant Churches This strictnesse the Prefacer saith is noted by some to have beene a great hinderer to the growth of the reformed Religion which belike is advantaged so much the more with us in as much as it is not hindred but he quotes no author for that As for the author he quotes I have not hitherto found that hee hath arrived to any great authority or credit in the World for the truth of his relations Neither hath the wisdome of our Church or state taken any contrary course hitherto either by Statute or Canon to promote reformation amongst us what they may doe hereafter I know not when such spirits as this Prefacer may bee so fortunate as to sit neare the sterne Whether the French Churches have found it so as this Geographer is sayd to report I know not but for their judgment herein I must expect untill I heare more therof Sect. 7. Pref. Which being so the judgement and practice of so many men and of such severall perswasions in the controverted point of the Christian faith concurring unanimously together the miracle is the greater that we in England should take up a contrary opinion and thereby separate our selves from all that are called Christian yet so it is Sect. 7. I skill not how it comes to passe but so it is that some among us have revived againe the Jewish Sabbath though not the day it selfe yet the name and thing Teaching that the commandement of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall that whereas all things else in the Jewish Church were so changed that they were cleane taken away This day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and lastly that the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were justly abrogated at Christs comming All which positions are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England as in a comment on those Articles perused and by the lawfull authority of the Church allowed to be publique is most cleare and manifest which doctrinalls though dangerous in themselves and different from the judgement of the ancient Fathers and of the greatest Clerks of the later times are not yet halfe so desperate as that which followeth thereupon in point of practice For these positions granted and entertained as orthodox what can we else expect but such strange paradoxes as in the consideration of the premisses have beene delivered from some pulpits in this kingdome as viz. That to doe any servile worke or businesse on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to kill a man or to commit adultery that to throw a bowle to make a feast or dresse a wedding dinner on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as for a man to take a knife and cut his childs throat that to ring more bells than one on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to commit murther The author which reports them all was present when the
opinion of men of severall professions as this author presseth it both Papists and Protestants both Lutheranes and Calvinists and this Prefacer can lay no just title to any one of them in this particular The second point he hath insisted upon is about the morality of one day in seven For this he pretends onely Papists in the first place and not a Father throughout and as Chrysostome to the contrary hath professed that God from the beginning hath manifested that on that day in the circle of the week must be consecrated unto his service much lesse Scripture And it is apparant that God commanded that the proportion of one day in seven should bee allotted to his service and it was never to bee abrogated nor ever did any man devise any ceremoniality therein And to this day it hath continued in the Church of God To Tostatus wee have opposed Azorius the Jesuite professing that it is most agreeable to reason after six worke dayes to consecrate one to Gods service Adde to him Stella upon Luke Jacobus de Valentia Dominicus Bannes As for Aquiaas that which hee accounts ceremoniall in the fourth Commandement was expressed by him to bee not one day in seven but the particulating of the seaventh day But whereas he goes no farther in illustrating the morality of this Commandement then in saying that some time must be set apart for Gods service I appeale to every mans conscience whether the very light of nature doth not suggest that not onely some time but a convenient proportion of time ought to be consecrated unto God and when God hath manifested this to bee one day in seaven under the Law doth not the very light of nature suggest that wee should sin against God if wee should not allow unto him as good a proportion of time under the Gospell And further if the Lords Day be of Divine institution amongst us Christians is it not still the Law of God even unto us to allow unto him one day in seven Now Doctor Prideaux himselfe alleageth more Papists for this opinion than for the contrary and one of them to wit Silvester professeth it is the common opinion as Azorius voucheth him And as for Protestants to side with him herein hee alleageth none but Gomarius and Rivet it may seeme by his carriage that Vatablus nd Musculus also are for him in this but that is untrue they are alleaged by Gomarus on the first point onely as touching the originall institution of the Sabbath Now Rivet is opposed herein by his two Collegues Walaeus and Thysius and whereas he takes upon him to answer Walaeus his reasons to the contrary and represent his owne reasons for his opinion herein I have taken into consideration both the one and the other and I trust have represented the weaknesse of his discourse throughout though otherwise a very learned and worthy Divine Now Waleus hath not onely alleadged amongst the Fathers Chrysostome Clemens Alexandrinus Eusebius Augustine Theodoret but a multitude of Protestant writers maintaining the morality of one day in seaven as Luther Melancthon Calvin Beza Bucer Peter Martyr Zanchius Junius Viretus Danaeus Fayus Martinius Vrsinus Alstedius Lorasegius Festus Hommius besides English and Scottish writers whom he might have produced more then enough yea of Bishops in this Kingdome as Bishop Babington Bishop Andrewes Bishop Lake yea and Master Hooker in his Ecclesiasticall policy Now let the readers judge by this of the modesty of this Prefacer in this particular also and whether the miracle as he phraseth it be on our side in dissenting from others unreasonably or on his rather The third particular is touching the celebration of the Lords Day as whether it bee by authority humane or divine rather wee say it is of divine hee will have it to be left arbitrary yet was it never knowne that any earthly Master did leave the proportion of service to bee performed unto him to the pleasure of his servant neither did God leave it thus from the beginning of the World untill Christ as hath beene proved Yet this Prefacer will have it thus left unto us in these latter dayes of which the Apostle hath prophecied 1 Tim. 3.4 that Men should be lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God For this he boasts of all sorts of Papists this he begins withall which was not wont to bee the course of English Divines yet hee belies Doctor Prideaux in this who alleageth more Papists standing for the divine right hereof then for the contrary and one of them as formerly I sayd professeth that it is the common opinion And Azorius the Jesuite professeth that it is most agreeable to reason that as after six dayes worke one should bee consecrate unto the Lord so the Lords Day should be it That many of our Protestants Divines call the observation of the Lords Day Ecclesiae consuetudinem and that it was left free unto the Church to choose another after the Iewes Sabbath was abrogated I have shewed how little all this makes for him answering to every passage punctually as they are alleaged by him For it is confessed that the Church they spake of was the apostolicall Church and the cause moving them to choose this day was the Resurrection of Christ and whereas some two of them call this Causam probabilem I have discussed that and prooved it to be more then probable I have shewed withall how the ancient fathers have acknowledged it some expressely divine some equivalently and expressely apostolicall constitution or sanction as Athanasius whose reason drawne from the congruity betweene the first creation and the second Creation by vertue of Christs death is remarkeable and followed by many both English and outlandish Divines Austin Sedulius Gregory and others And with them the concurrence of our Protestant divines Bucer Calvin Beza Junius Piscator Wolsius Fulke against the Remish Doctor Andrewes bishop of Winchester Doctor Lake bishop of Bath and Wells in expressing it to be observationis not liberae but necessariae Master Fox Walaeus Fayus Hyperius Perkins Brownde By this lot the reader judge of the modesty of the Praefacer in this particular also and whether the miracle bee on our side in dissenting from others in an unreasonable manner and not on his rather The fourth and last particular is the mutability of the day which this Prefacer stands for we on the contrary professing it to be unchangeable Now the resolution of this followeth upon the resolution of the former for this onely names are produced both by the Prefacer and Doctor Prideaux Yet I have endeavored to finde out Chemnitius his discourse thereon and enter upon a discussion thereof Bucer I am sure alleaged by Rivet is nothing for this purpose Doctor Fulke directly opposeth it Doctor Andrewes Doctor Lake above mentioned Doctor Brownde Doctor Willet Master Perkins The Christian Church anciently being demanded whether they had kept the Lords Day were wont to answer I am a Christian I cannot intermit it
and other dishes already prepared to be set on the board wherewith his table was as well furnished as it was with guests But to returne it is an easy matter now a dayes to accuse of any thing as Doctor Prideaux hee saith accuseth us of Judaisme but si accusare sufficiat quis innocens erit when hee or Doctor Prideaux shall prove their accusations then let us be condemned and if wee be not condemned till then wee care not Yet it is untrue which hee pins upon Doctor Prideaux his sleeve as if hee should alleage Austin saying that they who literally understand the fourth Commandement doe not yet savour of the spirit neither S. Austin speakes this of the fourth Commandement nor is hee so alleaged by Doctor Prideaux but of the seventh day Quisquis diem illum observat sicut litera sonat carnà liter sapit As much as to say whosoever keeps that day which the Jew keepes favoureth carnally Neither did I know any of my brethren to stand for the sanctifying of the seventh day in correspondency to the seventh day Sect. 8. from the Creation but onely of one day in seaven which day must also be prescribed by God as the seventh day of the weeke was to the Jewes which is the next thing imputed unto us but the Lords Day is the first day of the weeke to us Christians Sect. 8. Pref. This when I had considered when I had seriously observed how much these fancies were repugnant both to the tendries of this Church and judgments of all kinde of writers and how unsafe to be admitted I thought I could not goe about a better worke then to exhibite to the view of my deare Countreymen this following Treatise delivered first and afterwards published by the Author in another language The rather since of late the clamour is encreased and that there is not any thing now more frequent in some Zelotes mouthes to use the Doctors words then that the Lords Day is with us licentiously yea sacrilegiously profaned Section first To satisfie whose scruples and give content unto their mindes I doubt not but this following discourse will be sufficient which for that cause I have translated faithfully and with as good propriety as I could not swerving any where from the sense and as little as I could from the phrase and letter Gratum opus agricolis a worke as I conceave it not unsuitable unto the present times wherein besides these peccant fancies before remembred some have so farre proceeded as not alone to make the Lords Day subject to the Jewish rigour but to bring in against the Jewish Sabbath and abrogate the Lords Day altogether I will no longer detaine the reader from the benefit hee shall reape thereby Onely I will crave leave for his greater benefit to repeat the summe thereof which is briefely this First that the Sabbath was not instituted in the first Creation of the World nor ever kept by any of the ancient patriarchs who lived before the Law of Moses therefore no morall and perpetuall precept as the other are Sect. 2. Secondly that the sanctifying of one day in seven is ceremoniall onely and obliged the Jewes not morall to oblige us Christians to the like observance Sect. 3. and 4. Thirdly that the Lords Day is founded onely on the authority of the Church guided therein by the practice of the Apostles not on the fourth Commandement which hee calls a scandalous doctrine Sect. 7. nor any other expresse authority in holy Scripture Sect 6. and 7. Then fourthly that the Church hath still authority to change the day though such authority be not fit to be put in practice Sect. 7. Fifthly that in the celebration of it there is no such cessation from works of labour required from us as was exacted of the Jewes but that we may lawfully dresse meat proportionable to every mans estate and doe such other things as are no hindrance to the publique service appointed for the day Sect. 8. Sixthly that on the Lords Day all recreations whatsoever are to be allowed which honestly may refresh the spirits and increase mutuall love and neighbour-hood amongst us and that the names whereby the Jewes were wont to call their festivalls whereof the Sabbath was the chiefe were borrowed from an Hebrew word which signifieth to dance and to be merry or make glad the countenance If so if all such ceremonies as do increase good neighbor-hood then wakes and feasts and other meetings of that nature If such as honestly may refresh the spirits then dancing wrestling shooting and all other pastimes not by law prohibited which either exercise the body or revive the mind And lastly that it appertaines to the Christian Magistrate to order and appoint what pastimes are to be permitted and what are not obedience unto whose commands is better farre than sacrifice to the Idols of our owne inventions not unto every private person or as the Doctors owne words are not unto every mans rash zeale who out of a schismaticall Stoicisme debarring men from lawfull pastimes doth incline to Judaisme Sect. 8. Adde for the close of all how doubtingly our Author speakes of the name of Sabbath which now is growne so rife amongst us Sect. 8. Concerning which take here that notable dilemma of Iohn Barkley the better to encounter those who still retaine the name and impose the rigor Paren l. 1. c. ult Cur porrò illum diem plerique Sectariorum Sabbatum appellatis What is the cause saith he that many of our Sectaries call this day the Sabbath If they observe it as a Sabbath they must observe it because God rested on the day and then they ought to keepe that day whereon God rested and not the first as now they doe whereon the Lord began his labours If they observe it as the day of our Saviours resurrection why doe they call it still the Sabbath seeing especially that Christ did not altogether rest the day but valiantly overcame the powers of death This is the summe of all and this is all that I have to say unto thee good Christian reader in this present businesse God give thee a right understanding in all things and a good will to doe thereafter Exam. This Prefacer accounts the opinions opposite to his to be fancies D. Willet on the contrary as wee have heard accounts this Prefacers opinion maintained by M. Rogers no better than fantasies which shall vanish however now for a time they flourish Sure wee are every plant that our heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out This Prefacer professeth those whom hee opposeth be opposite to the tendries of our Church and indeed the Author whom D. Willet intimateth intitled his booke audaciously enough The Catholique doctrine of the Church of England but D. Willet on the other side wondred that any professing the Gospel should gain-say and impugne the positions maintained by D. Bownde And sure I am Bishop Babington Bishop Andrewes Bishop Lake agreed with
Gentiles but rather in the purity of the soule and chearefulnesse of the mind and pious Meditations as when we use holy Hymnes in stead of Tabers and Psalmes in stead of wicked songs and dancings The same Dialericus alleageth Pope Gregory out of his 91. booke of his Epistles and 3. Epistle affirming That therefore on the Lords Day we ought to rest from all Earthly worke and by all meanes insist on prayer that if ought hath been committed by us negligently on the six dayes on the day of the Lords Resurrection it might be cleared by prayers And which is yet more out of Chrysostome 5. Homily on Mathew hee shewes how in that Bishops judgement we should be exercised on the Lords Day in our private Families thus When we depart from the Ecclesiasticall assembly we ought not in any case intangle our selves in businesses of a contrary nature but as soone as we come home turne over the Holy Scriptures and call thy Wife and thy Children to conferre about those things which have been delivered and after they have been deepely rooted in our minds then to proceed to provide for such things as are necessary for this life So anciently is the pious exercise of repeating Sermons commended unto us by this holy Bishop which in these dayes I have heard to bee cryed downe by profane persons as a cause of increase of Brownisme And I willingly confesse that when I first came to this place there were no lesse then tenne that partly had withdrawne themselves partly were upon the point of withdrawing themselves from our Common Prayers but within a short time there was not one such to be found amongst us and so wee have continued to this day But to returne Ephrem Syrus may goe for a zelote in like manner who as hee is alleged by Rivetus treating of the Sabbath exhorts to honour the Lords festivities celebrating them not panegyrically but Heavenly not secularly but spiritually not like Heathens but like Christians and he shewes wherein this consists in the words following Quare non portarum frontes coronemus let us not hang Garlands upon the frontispice of our Gates non choreas ducamus let us not leade a dance non chorum adornemus let us not by our presence beautifie any such company non tibiis auditum effaminemus let us not effeminate our Eares with their Musick or with their fidles Nay as Doctor Prideaux complaines of the Jewes corrupting themselves to the profaning of their Sabbaths so Polidor Virgil complaines of the like corruptions among Christians on their festivalls lib. 6. cap. 8. not imploying their time in prayer and in the exercise of Gods Word for which cause such festivalls were instituted but in all manner of evill courses tending to the corrupting of mens manners and that herein they imitate Heathens though of ancient times Tertullian as hee sayth reprehended Heathens for such courses as in his Apologeticum speaking of the holy solemnity of their Emperours Therefore saith hee Christians are compted enemies to the State because they doe not dedicate vaine lying and rash honors to their Prince Forsooth it is a great good office to make bonfiers and dances in publique and to feast in every parish to transforme the City into the habite of a Taverne Vino lutum cogere which Junius sayth was a fruit of their desperate Luxury and a signe of their madnesse and fury he proceedes to strive who shall exceed one another in running about to doe injuries to commit impudencies to provoke unto lust And is the publike joy after such a manner exprest to wit by publique shame O how deservedly are we Christians to be condemned he speakes it ironically who by carrying our selves soberly chastly honestly doe oppose the vowes made and the joyes expressed for the Emperors to wit when for their sober and chast and vertuous carriage on such dayes not concurring with others to the same excesse of riot were censured as enemies unto their Princes Yet even in those primitive times the manners of Christians became degenerate as Baldwin observes in his cases of conscience p. 479. and that out of Tertullian as whom hee observes to have complained of it namely that Christans imitated the manners of the Heathen in this yea and grew worse then they in his booke de Idol c. 14. O melior fides nationum in suam sectam quae nullam Christianorum solennitatem sibi vendicat non Dominicam non Pentecostem etiam si nossent nobiscum non communicassent ne Christiani viderentur nos ne Ethnici pronuntiemur non veremur O the fayth of the Nations better then ours towards their own sect as who chalenge not to themselves any Christian solemnity not that of the Lords Day nor that of Whitsuntide Had they known it they would not communicate with us lest they should seem Christians we Christians feare not to be accompted Heathens O what a zelote did Tertullian shew himselfe in this nay what thinke wee of Leo and Anthemius Emperours were not they zelotes too in that decree of theirs alleaged by the former Baldwin Dies festos majestati Altissimi dedicatos nullis volumus voluptatibus occupari undoubtedly they meane hereby worldly pleasures such they would have no place on holy festivities and why but because they accounted those holy festivalls profaned thereby And may not King Iames also be censured for a zelote in making that proclamation of his for the reformation of abuses in profaning the Lords Day at his first comming into the Land to receave this Kingdome as his rightfull inheritance In the Conference before his Majesty at Hampton Court I finde mention made of it by D. Reynolds in this manner To the former Doctor Reynolds did adde the profanation of the Sabbath day and contempt of his Majesties proclamation made for the reforming of that abuse of which he earnestly desired a streighter course for reformation thereof and unto this he found a generall and unanimous assent All these be like were zelotes So was his Majesty also that now is together with all the Lords both spirituall and temporall and the house of Commons in that Act made in the first yeare of King Charles to preserve the Lords Day from profanation wherein are forbidden expressely and by name bearebaiting bulbaiting enterludes common playes and in generall all other unlawfull exercises and pastimes and over and above all meetings and assemblies or concourse of people out of their owne parishes for any sports or pastimes whatsoever and consequently no man ought on the Lords Day goe forth of his owne parish to any may-game or to see a Morrice-dance or dancing about May-poles and seeing the Apostle professeth that it is good to be zealous alwayes in a good thing Gal. 4.18 and Christ hath died for us to redeeme us from all iniquity and to purge us a peculiar people unto himselfe zealous of good workes Tit. 2.14 let them in the Name of God be such zelots still this zeale being a
is an easy matter to say they conclude nothing though I may justly wonder any reasonable man should say so of the argument drawne from those words Gen. 2.3 Therefore God blessed the seventh day and sanctifyed it the author alleadging no other exception against it but the interpretation of Tostatus namely that it is delivered by way of anticipation For this is as good as to confesse that to blesse and sanctify the seventh day is all one as if hee had said that God commanded it to be sanctified Onely they will not have it understood of that time when the Lord rested from the works of Creation So that the meaning of Moses must be this In the seventh day God ended the works which he had made and the seventh day God rested from all the workes which he had made and because God rested on that seventh day from all the works that he had made therefore he commanded not then that that day from thence forward but 2400. yeares after that men should consecrate that day to divine service Now in disputing against the unreasonablenesse of this interpretation given by Tostatus I am very willing to make Doctor Prideaux my judge and as it were under his moderation to proceed in this And here I purpose not to revive the disputations of Walaeus and Rivetus against Tostatus his anticipation but onely to content my selfe with the ground layd by Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his Thesis of the Sabbath Thes 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekly monthly or yearely as particulars evince in Scripture and History I make bold to lay this for my ground in this place because it is apparant that God made his worke on the seventh day the ground of hallowing that day namely because it was the day of Gods rest therfore to make it the day of mens rest for the sanctifying of it unto the Lord. Now I pray consider is it reasonable that because such or such a worke hath beene done in such a day provoking us to keepe it a festivall day unto the Lord therefore it becomes us accordingly to sanctify it but when not that day nor the same day senight nor throughout the 52. weekes of that yeare nor any of the 52. weekes the next yeare no nor for the space of a 1000 yeares or two thousand but after the expiration of 2500 yeares and more then and not till then to sanctify that day because on that day of the weeke the Lord rested from the worke of Creation 2500 yeares before why might not the wisdome of our Parliament have imitated God and in memory of our deliverance from the Gunpowder treason on the 5. of November ordeined that day should bee kept festivall so far forth as in the publique congregation to make a solemne and thankfull commemoration of that wonderfull deliverance to begin forsooth a thousand or two thousand yeares after So the Jewes observed yearely the feast of Purim in remembrance of Gods mercifull deliverance of them from the conspiracy of Haman but when did they ordaine this feast to begin not till a thousand yeares after had they done so who would not have said that their wisdome herein had exceeded all humane discretion Or to avoid the like unreasonablenesse on their side well they say that the case is not alike for as much as the fresh remembrance of the Creation and of Gods resting on the seventh day was sufficient unto them both for the maintaining of the division of time into weekes or seven dayes and of sanctifying each seventh unto the Lord but when the memory hereof began to be obliterated to wit about some 900 yeares after the flood then it was fit the Lord should revive the observation of this day by a particular Commandement But herby they shall make the fourth Commandement not only morall but also more naturall then they are aware Though I willingly confesse they might well conceave that after some 15 or 1600 yeares men might grow weary of observing the seventh day the day of Gods rest from the worke of Creation because by experience we finde that after some 15 or 1600 yeares Christians seem to grow weary of keeping holy the Lords day the day whereon the Lord Christ rose from the grave so rested from his worke of redemption But as not long after 1600 yeares the flood came to set an end to the World by water so it may be after 1600 yeares of the Gospell there are but as few yeares to the comming of Christ to set an end unto this World by fire certainely as often as some festivall day is grounded upon some singular worke of God done on that day which Doctor Lake proposeth as a generall and undoubted rule alwayes to hold concerning festivalls no time more fit for the observation of such a day then when the memory of the worke is fresh then is a man like to be more devout more chearefull in Gods service more thankefull unto him for his great goodnesse like as the Angells immediatly upon their Creation praised God Iob. 38.7 When the Starres of the morning praised me and all the children of God rejoyced which in Cornelius his language was to observe the Sabbath Now give mee leave to enlarge this by proportion As there are Sabbaths of rejoycing so there are Sabbaths of mourning And the expiatiō day commanded unto the Jewes was an annuall feast to inure them to this holy exercise not onely once a yeare but oftner as God should minister occasion Now this day is called by the Lord also a Sabbath Levit. 16.31 And Doctor Andrewes in his paterne of Catecheticall doctrine handles the duties of such a day in his doctrine of the Sabbath And it is well knowne that dayes of wrath have their course and shall have their course as long as this World lasteth as well as dayes of mercy And wee have cause to blesse God that hee hath inclined his Majesties heart to take notice of such dayes of wrath and accordingly by Proclamation to command a generall humiliation throughout the Land divers and sundry times So wee reade that the Jewes observed a fast on the first moneth besides the fast of the seventh which God commanded as wee reade Zach. 7.3.5 and it was observed on the tenth day of that moneth that being the day whereon Nebuchadnezzar burnt the house of the Lord as wee reade Ier. 52.12 13. Now thus far had they observed the 70 yeares of their captivity Zach. 7.5 they did not put off the observation of it till a thousand yeares after it being most fit then especially to mourne when God calleth us thereunto and not to put it off when hee calleth us thereunto the Lord sore complayning of such courses and pronouncing an heavy judgement upon offenders in this kinde Esay 22.12 13 14. Now like as it becomes us to mourne when first God calleth us thereunto so it becommeth us to rejoyce in keeping
destroy the law but to fulfill it and that the least of them should not be abrogated in his kingdome of the new Testament In so much that whosoever breaketh one of the least of these tenne commandments and teacheth men so hee should be called the least in the Kingdome of heaven that is saith the Author he should have no place in his Church To the first of these here the Doctor answereth thus To which we say with the Apostle Doe we destroy the Law by faith God forbid We confirme it rather 2 Christ then hath put away the shadow but retained the light and spreads it wider then before shewing thereby the excellent harmony betweene the Gospell and the Law As touching the first part of this present answer that is too aliene from our present purpose the question betweene us being not whether the Law be destroyed by preaching justification by faith we know that as touching the ceremoniall Law whatsoever was prefigured thereby is fulfilled by Christ and as touching the morall Law Christ hath fulfilled that also partly in himselfe by perfect obedience thereunto and making satisfaction for our disobedience and partly in us by giving us more power to performe obedience thereunto through faith in him then ever we had before since the fall of Adam But our Saviour Matth. 5. treats of destroying the law by abrogating it or any part thereof which how they can avoid who teach that Christ by his death hath freed us from the Yoke of the fourth commandement I cannot comprehend Suppose it be but one of the least commandements yet let them looke to it who discourse of abrogating it and teach men that they are not obliged by it hand over head least they be accompted by the Lord of Sabbath the least in the kingdome of heaven therefore it stands them upon to confirme it rather as they professe but how they doe performe that which they pretend I am utterly to seeke 2. I come therefore to the consideration of the second part of the answer consisting of two parts 1. That Christ hath put away the shadow 2. That he hath retained the light spreads it further As for the first wee have heard the proportion of one day in seven allowed unto Gods service to be called a ceremony and consequently a shadow But what this prefigured is not explaned at all nor ever hath beene that ever I read or heard Neither is this put away but continueth still in the observation of the Lords day all the Christian world over and I doubt not but it will continue to the end of the world The restraint of the worship to the seventh day hath beene also called a ceremony but too too crudely and without all explication of what it figured yet we willingly grant a faire prefiguration of somewhat concerning Christ is found in the seventh day acknowledged by the Ancients and by moderne writers both Papists and Protestants both Lutherans and Calvinists but that is not in reference to the worship restrained to that day but in reference to the test fairely representing Christs rest that day in his grave and thereupon grounding the rigorous condition of the Jewish rest which is the practise both of Papists of Protestants so that the Sabbath is not taken away neither as touching some time in generall to be sanctified unto God nor as touching the proportion of time in speciall as of one day in seven but only as touching the particular day which is changed into the Lords day Our Saviour professing that a Sabbath still was to bee kept of Christians as Doctor Andrewes proveth out of Matth. 24 20. As for the second to wit the light that is said to be retained and spread wider then before this is meere darknesse unto me for I cannot by any meanes comprehend the meaning of it Neither is here any course taken to expound it and bring us acquainted with the interpretation of it Suppose by the light is meant the thing prefigured and that is devised to bee a spirituall rest from sinne Sect. 4. But this I hope the Prophets and holy servants of God under the Law were partakers of together with the rest of the Sabbath and the sanctification of it as well as we under the Gospell and if the sanctification of the Sabbath I speak of our Christian Sabbath according to our Saviours language Matth. 24.20 be taken from us I doubt wee shall enjoy that spirituall rest from sinne in farre lesse measure under the Gospell then the Jewes did under the law Yet neither they nor we shall enjoy it intirely till we are brought to our rest in glory Certainely the conscionable observation of the Sabbath ever was and is a principall meanes to draw us to that spirituall rest from sin and eternall rest in glory If Saint Paul by taxing the Jewish observation of dayes times doth therewithall tax the observation of the Lords day in place of the Jewish then let us turne Anabaptists and Socinians and utterly renounce the observation of the Lords day as well as of the Jewish Sabbath The same Apostle Col. 2. speakes not of the Sabbath but of Sabbaths and there were dayes enough so called amongst the Jewes and that by the Lord both of dayes and yeares besides the weekely Sabbath yet we are content the rest of the seventh may be ranged amongst other Sabbaths as prefiguring Christs rest that day in the grave But to speake of the Sabbath hand-over-head without distinction we love not nor see I any cause why men should be in love therewith unlesse withall they love confusion and to fish in troubled waters is many times an advantage to serve turnes Let the rest of the seventh be in Gods name crucified with Christ upon the crosse or at least be buryed with him in his grave and so as never to rise with him but let our Christian Sabbath our Saviour speakes of Matth. 24.20 take life together with our Saviours resurrection that brought with it a new creation a new world and there withall a new Sabbath as Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester delivers it in his Starre Chamber speech in the case of Trask As reason tells us that there must be some certaine appointed time for Gods publique Service so as good reason tells us wee Christians cannot without sinne allow unto God for his publique service a worse proportion of time under the Gospell then the Jewes were bound to allow unto him under the Law God himselfe never having deserved so much at the hands of man as under the Gospell and there never being greater necessitie of observing a Sabbath then under the Gospell the way of truth and holinesse being so beset and with such encombrances as the like were never knowne to the world before yet still from the bondage and necessitie of the Iewish Sabbath we are delivered by the Gospell for neither doe we keepe their day then called the Lords holy day but the first day of the weeke the
ex institutione ecclesiae And whereas Bellarmine is alleaged as the mouth of the Schoolemen to affirme absolutely that the celebration of the Lords day is by the constitution of the Church and that in distinction from them who say it was ordered by the Apostles I find no such matter in the place quoted but rather the contrary both confirming that one day in a weeke is to be consecrated to the Lord by law divine and whereas it was not fit that now the Saturday should be it therefore the Sabbath was turned into the Lords day by the Apostles his words are these Ius divinū requirebat ut vnus dies hebdomadae dicaretur cultui divino non autem conveniebat ut servaretur Sabbatum Itaque Sabbatum ab Apostolis in diem Dominicum versum est likewise Sixtus Senensis saith that the institution of the Lords day is of the Apostles as I have shewed in my answer to the preface S. 5. It is true that which is here reported of Brentius as who professeth it to be left indifferent to the Church to ordain one day in seven or on day in fourteene to be consecrated which whether it be not an unreasonable conceit I am willing to appeale to the judgement of Doctor Prideaux yet Gemardus the Lutheran will not follow Brentius in this as I have shewed in my answer to the preface and 5. Section For hee acknowledgeth the celebration of the Lords day to be juxta Apostolorum constitutionem And as for Chemnitius what he writes hereof is not expressed but for the divine authority of the celebration of the Lords day I have represented the joynt consent of some 11. or 12. of our moderne divines in the place before mentioned Besides the concurrence of the ancient Fathers not one of them being so much as pleaded for the opposite Tenet and lastly the generall answer of Christians in the times of persecution when they were demanded in this manner Dominicum servasti hast thou kept the Lords day for usually it was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum I cannot omit it for I am a Christian Sect. 5. The first opinion to wit of those who maintained the divine authoritie of the celebritie of the Lords day by the old Testament is here censured for inclining much to Judaisme but it is not expressed wherein And it is apparant they doe not maintaine the observation of the seventh day Certainely this is delivered in reference to somewhat that is not thought fit to be expressed yet the prefacer did expresse it imputing unto them whom he opposeth that they doe observe the Jewish Sabbath not in respect of the Jewish day but of the Jewish manner observing it to wit in the way of a rigorous rest But I know none that maintaines any other rest from works then as they are avocations from sacred studies and meditations whereas the Jewes observed it for some mysterious signification sake and thereupon were tyed to a more rigorous rest But let them speake plainly and say we are too rigorous in thinking sports and pastimes unlawfull on the Lords day And herein I appeale to every Christian conscience whether these be not as great avocations from sacred studies and meditations as the workes of our ordinary callings Then againe which of us comes nearest to Judaisme herein Is it not against the Jewes that Austin professeth Melius est orare quam saltare Better to goe to plough then to dances and Foeminae vestrae melius lanam facerent quam saltarent Better it were your women should spin wooll then dance as their course was in their festivalls Againe why should their opinion be Jewish by maintaining it out of the old Testament rather then out of the new Then who are they that maintaine it onely by the old Testament And lastly not one that I know neither doe I thinke it can be justly obtruded on any doe maintaine the succession of the Lords day in the place of the Jewish Sabbath either by the originall institution of it as from the creation or by the fourth commandement yet upon these nullities is founded the imputation of both impudency and ignorance in oppugning the received opinion of Divines That confidently taken up for a received opinion among divines which is in no tolerable sort proved not one Ancient alleaged for it and but two Papists quoted the one of which I have shewed to be of a plaine contrary opinion Sect. 4. And of Protestant Divines I have represented no lesse then eleven maintaining the Apostolicall and divine constitution of the Lords day besides Gerardus the Lutheran to affront Brentius Nay Doctor Prideaux himselfe Sect. 7. maintaines that it is of Divine authority and as I remember in the vespers at the last act unalterable by the Church That the Priesthood being changed there is made also a change of the law we beleeve because the Apostle saith it Heb. 7.12 it is well if the Schoolemen make the word of God their principles but of what Law of the morall law or of the tenne commandements or any one of them yet we willingly confesse a change of one particular in one of them not rather of the law of sacrifices such a change as to set an end to them That herence the Schoolemen conclude that at this day the morall law bindeth not as it was published and proclaimed by Moses but as at first it appertained no lesse to the Gentiles then to the Iewes this I say is a mystery And to confesse a truth when I met with this in a certaine manuscript of one Brewers it seemed to me a very wilde discourse from this place of the Apostle to inferre so much but now I meet with it in a lecture of so judicious and learned Divine as Doctor Prideaux I will suspend my judgement and waite untill I heare what those Schoolemen are and where it is that they make such inferences that being made acquainted with them I may judge of them according to my capacity as they deserve Certainely Zanchy in the place quoted makes no such Inference from that place Heb. 7.12 yet the Doctrine which he delivers is good and sound though the instance he makes of the Sabbath too weake to prove it as appeares to all that acknowledge the Commandement of sanctifying the Sabbath to be given to Adam immediatly after his creation who deserve to be accompted more hot spurres then they in whom The desire of prey doth over-runne the sent Now what one of our Divines can be alleaged to derive the authority of the Lords day from the law of Moses I am verily perswaded not one The sanctifying of the Lords Sabbath they derive from thence and the sanctifying of one day in seven but not the authority of the Lords day But if it may appeare otherwise that the Lords day by good authority is substituted in the place of the seventh to become our Christian Sabbath such as our Saviour fore-prophecied of Matth. 24.20 then
right hand pleasures for evermore Gods soule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 takes pleasure in us why should not we take delight in him Is not all other rejoycing in comparison to our rejoycing in him a rejoycing in a thing of nought Amos 6.13 Certainly he that loveth any pleasure or pastime in comparison to this will in the end prove to be a very poore creature But to proceed after this a rule is given That this our christian liberty be voyd of scandall to wit of scandall justly given Prov. 21.17 and not vainely caught at but in what cases it falls out to be justly given and in what not in what case it is vainly caught at and in what not here we find no explication which yet I presume will seeme necessary in every wise mans judgement especially to me it must needs seeme so being as I am in extreame despaire of devising these different cases of mine owne head Of Christian liberty from the yoke of Jewish ceremonies I have read but of Christian liberty unto sports and pastimes under the gentile notion of recreations and that on the Lords day I never read till now The Jewes to this day continue their ceremonies but not any abstinence from al sports and pastimes on their Sabbath for if they did why should Austin tell them it were better for them to goe to plough then to dance In the very festivalls of the Jewes which were yearely a difference there was in the dayes of each the first and last were Sabbaths appointed for holy convocations and thereon abstinence commanded from all servile works I no where finde any piping and dancing on those dayes saving their temple musick how much more undecent is it to clap the weekely Sabbath together with other festivalls as if there were no difference 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to be moved round and consequently it signifies as sometimes to dance as 1 Sam. 30. so sometimes also to stagger like a drunken man Psal 107.27 And dancing was used sometimes in the festivalls of the Jewes whereby they testified their rejoycing in the Lord Ier. 31. and with a pipe they came to the mount of the Lord Es 30. and Miriam Moses sister and other women also with Timbrells and dances expressed their joy in the Lord for their deliverance from the hands of the Egyptians and for their safe passage through the red Sea wherein the enemies were drowned But of any such course used on the first and last day of their yearely feasts which were set apart for holy convocations we find no example amongst them much lesse as approved while they continued the Church and people of God least of all on the weekely Sabbath As for love feasts on the Sabbath untill abuse crept in they continued without exception in great sobriety only to quicken one another and provoke unto love and gracious communication for the edification of their souls I never heard of any schismatique how rashly zealous or Stoicall soever that tooke upon him the authority of the civill magistrate All for ought I know concurre in this that it belongs onely to the magistrate out of coercitive power to command and compell but to the Minister of what sect soever only to persuade and worke upon mens consciences so that the members of this comparison are most indecently yoaked feigning men to be of what spirit soever it pleaseth to shape them and to doe whatsoever they thinke good though never so unreasonably and without all example Of the Jewes I have read that they count it unlawfull to kill a Flea on the Sabbath and such things must be pinned upon the sleeve of opposites to grace their cause for want of better arguments to strengthen it Infine we have a buffe givē to debauched companions in words when under the cleanly terme of Recreations on the Lords Day the course here taken is to sacrifice unto them indeed and in effect FINIS Doctor LAKE Bishop of BATH and Wells Theses de Sabbato 1. GOD at first made us not only men but also children of God 2. Therefore wee had a double being or were fitted for a double Societie 1. Civill 2. Ecclesiasticall 3. These states are inwrapped the one in the other For the Ecclesiasticall presuposeth the Civill He that is a child of God is a man and hee must be of the Civill that is of the Ecclesiasticall society 4. And the Civill state must be seasoned with and moderated by the Ecclesiasticall for a man in his Civill state must live as a child of God and member of the Church 5. Notwithstanding God would that each of these states should during this World have successively their principall imployments 6. And for these imployments hee appointed certaine times 7. The proportion of time allowed the principall imployment of the civill state was six dayes And that which was allowed the principall imployment of Ecclesiasticall state was one day 8. What times himselfe tooke for to work in or rest after the Creation the same did hee assigne to men and made his patterne a perpetuall Law 9. So then of our time God reserved a seventh part for his service 10. But in this apportioning as he reserved a seventh part of time so was that seventh the seventh day of the weeke 11. Whereof the ground was his rest from labour 12. For that he would have to be the day of mans rest because he sanctified it 13. And though no meane both Jewes and Christians doubt of the beginning of this observance by man yet I thinke it began with Adam 14. God had a Church and a service of his owne prescript from the beginning and why should we doubt whether hee cloathed then his service with due circumstances of Time Place 15 Did he sanctifie it for his owne use That were absurd to thinke the Word sanctifying doth refute it for whom then surely for man 16. And the place Exod. 16. together with the Preface to the fourth Commandement remember weigh more with me then all the weake presumptions that are brought to the contrary 17. I conclude then that the fourth Commandement is not an introduction but a declaratory Law 18. But moreover I adde that when it was delivered to the Jewes there was superadded a distinguishing reference to that Church 19. For it was prescribed as a signe of Gods sanctifying residence amongst them and a memoriall of their freedome from Egyptian bondage 20. But these accessories derogate not from the first institution 21. No more doth the forme of Liturgy which was occasioned by the fall or their freedome 22. These things shew rather to what speciall use they did apply the time then touch the apportionment thereof 23. The apportionment of time of which I take these Questions moved hath two remarkable things 24. 1. That God reserveth a seventh part of time 2. That hee designeth which of the seven days shall be his 25. The reserving of the seventh part I hold to be by Gods Ordinance who is
have been observed by Christian Emperours thereupon moved more strictly to give in charge the observation of the Lords day as Ludovicus Pius by name as thus Didicimus quosdam in hoc die opera ruralia exercētes fulmine intèremptos quosdam artuum contractione multatos quosdam visibili igne absumptos subito in cincrē resolutos poenaliter occubuisse Proinde necesse est ut primum Sacerdotes Reges Principes cunctique fideles huic dici debitam observationem atque reverentiam devotissimè exhibeant We have knowne some busied in workes of husbandry on this day to have beene slaine with lightning some punished with the contraction of their limbes some with visible fire consumed on a sudden turned into ashes and so to have perished as by way of punishment Wherefore it is a necessary duty that in the first place Priests then Kings Princes and all faithfull persons most devoutly exhibite due observation and reverence unto this day The other miracles mentioned by the Monke are of another nature as of a cake bak't on the hearth on Saturday after three a clocke in the afternoone and how that part of it reserved to the morning and being then broken blood came out of it and another of the like nature and two more I say these are of Roger Hovedens relation not of Eustachius his preaching whom the Monke relates to have been in great esteeme of the Clergie in those dayes and to have prevailed much with many of the people though for the generall he could not bring them off from their marketing on the Lords day Yet what are these to be talkt of in comparison to those which are comprised in two bookes of miracles written by Cluniacensis and albeit those times may be accounted times of darknesse in comparison of ages fore-going yet this Prefacer is ready to make answer that that is but the opinion of some But whereas hee saith That this strange opinion is now revived and published first I desire to know his meaning For as for a preparation to the Sabbath and that to begin from about three a clock in the afternoone the whole Kingdome observes it as for the strict observation thereof here mentioned I have shewed that Eustachius speakes of no such thing If hee did what is that to those who suffer for standing for the strict observation of the Sabbath against those who would have the Lords day at least in part to be a day of sports and pastimes Can he shew this to be their opinion If he can why doth he not And if from three a clock on Saturday in the afternoone people doe prepare for the Lords day and abstaine from such workes dispatching both their baking bread and other works in the morning what danger or detriment is hereby likely to arise either to our faith or manners What danger either to Prince Church or State The third Section BUt to proceed Preface Immediately upon the Reformation of Religion in these Westerne parts the Controversie brake out a fresh though in another manner than before it did For there were some of whom Calvin speakes Instit lib. 2. sect 33. who would have had all dayes alike all equally to be regarded he means the Anabaptists as I take it and reckoned that the Lords day as the Church continued it was a Jewish ceremony Affirming it to crosse the doctrine of Saint Paul who in the text before remembred and in the fourteenth to the Romans did seeme to them to cry downe all such difference of dayes and times as the Church retained To meet which vaine and peccant humour Calvin was faine to bend his forces declaring how the Church might lawfully retaine set times for Gods service without infringing any of Saint Pauls commandements But on the other side as commonly the excesse is more exorbitant than the defect there wanted not some others who thought they could not honour the Lords day sufficiently unlesse they did affix as great a sanctitie unto it as the Jewes did unto their Sabbath So that the change seemed to be onely of the day the superstition still remaining no lesse Jewish than before it was These taught as now some doe moralem esse unius diei observationem in hebdomada Ibid. sect 34. the keeping holy to the Lord one day in seven to bee the morall part of the fourth Commandement which doctrine what else is it so he proceeds as here the Doctor so repeats it in his third section then in contempt of the Jews to change the day and to affix a greater sanctity to the day than those ever did As for himselfe so farre was he from favouring any such wayward fancie that as Iohn Barklay makes report he had a consultation once de transferenda solennitate Dominica in feriam quintam to alter the Lords day from Sunday to Thursday How true this is I cannot say But sure it is that Calvin tooke the Lords day to be an ecclesiasticall and humane constitution only Quem veteres in locum Sabbati subrogarunt appointed by our Ancestors to supply the place of the Jewish Sabbath and as our Doctor tells us from him in his seventh section as alterable by the Church at this present time as first it was when from Saturday they translated it unto the Sunday So that we see that Calvin here resolves upon three Conclusions First that the keeping holy one day in seven is not the morall part of the fourth Commandement Secondly that the day was changed from the last day of the weeke unto the first by this authority of the Church and not by any divine Ordinance And thirdly that the day is yet alterable by the Church as at first it was Exam. Thus at length this Prefacer observes that look upon what Scripture passages some did contend the Jewish Sabbath to be ceremoniall and accordingly to be abrogated by the Death and Resurrection of Christ Upon the very same grounds others contended against the observation of all Holy dayes even of the Lords day also as if that were Jewish This is the course of the Anabaptists unto whom Wallaeus addes the Socinians and Hospinian the Petrobrusians By what authoritie the Lords day was introduced Calvin disputes not He saith Dominicum diem veteres in locum Sabbati substituerunt Instit lib. 2. c. 8. sect 34. Calvin in 1. ad Corin. cap. 16. The Ancients brought the Lords day into the place of the Sabbath and that the day the Apostle prescribed to the Corinthians wherein they should lay apart something for the relieving of the Saints at Ierusalem was the day quo sacros conventus agebant whereon they kept their holy meetings Lib. 2. c. 8. sect 34. And that which moved the Apostles to change the Sabbath to the Lords day he shewes both in his institutions thus for seeing in the Lords Resurrection is found the end and fulfilling of the true rest which the old Sabbath shadowed by that very day which set an end